PALM Statistics

Since we have 786 people registered, I made a first pass at generating PALM statistics. I've posted them to the website. There are a few things that I notice. We have 225 people who are on the PALM for the first time. This is 29% of the people on PALM. This may seem like a lot but last year 35% of our riders were doing their first PALM and the year before that it was 45%. We've reached our 700 cutoff the last three years: 2006 in the middle of April, 2007 in the middle of March, and this year in the middle of February. Before 2006 no one remembers reaching the cutoff. In 2006 a lot of our regular riders were caught off guard and missed the cutoff. That's why there were so many first timers in 2006. By 2008 people figured out that they have to register early. If you didn't get a registration mailed to you this year, the odds of getting on PALM weren't good. (I didn't enter many new names and addresses during this year's registration. Most of the first timers this year were already on our mailing list and were mailed an application. )

The age band counts have some differences too. Notice that the number of 10-20 year olds is down this year and that the smallest age band is now 0 to 9. (Traditionally its been the 20 -29 age band.) One reason for the drop of 10 - 19 year olds is that we don't have the St Hubert's youth group with us this year. (They have been riding PALM every other year.)

Last year's PALM was the longest six day PALM that we've ever done, almost every day was 50 miles. We drew hot weather last year, high 80's to 90 for the first three days. This year we made sure that we mixed in some shorter days with the longer ones. (If you want to do longer miles, we offer optionals on our routes. We've always done this.) Weatherwise, we made sure that winter went on much longer in 2008. This year we had to raise our registration fees. Because of the rise in gas prices and schools we were losing thousands of dollars. We raised adult more than child and teen fees to keep PALM affordable for families. And this year, we filled early. If you look at the statistics, the median number of PALMs that a rider has ridden is 4. The number of riders drops greatly after 5 PALMs. It is very important for us that we attract new riders. One of PALM's missions is to encourage family biking by providing an affordable biking vacation. Attacting families is very important to us. I hope that the reason the number of first timers and 0 - 19 year olds are down is that we closed early, not a reaction to last year's route or the increase in fees.

Robins and Applications

On St. Patrick's day I saw my first robin in the neighborhood, high up in a tree. (A bird watcher at work told me that some robins do stay here over the winter. To see them you have to go to parks or woodlands. After all they have to eat.) Over the next couple of days I saw more of them, this time foraging on the ground. Yes, I can finally see the ground, but it's still in the low 40's. It's still a little too cold for me to ride, and I'm getting desperate. I haven't ridden all month. I complain that biking has a 8 month season in Michigan, but this year it's been true. Wait, stop complaining. I did see robins, today really is the first day of spring, opening day is 11 days away and Easter is this Sunday. Never mind the winter storm that is predicted for tomorrow. You have to live in the moment.

I got another packet of applications for about 70 people. This brings us to rider number 791. (So much for our 700 rider cutoff. Do you see why we don't have a wait list?) I'll be mailing out the confirmation letters over the weekend. There will be more cancellations than applications from here on out.

I notice in the comments that people looking for people who are going to cancel so that they can replace them. If you do this, please let us know. We still need you to sign the waiver to be straight with our insurance. If you do take over another's registration, you have until June 1 to change the meals and bus rides on it, until April 1 to get a jersey. The only thing you can't do is add somebody extra to the registration.

Caught up as winter fades

I finished processing and mailed out the confirmation letter for the 717th person on this year's PALM on Wednesday. If you mailed us an application and haven't gotten either a confirmation letter, your application back with regrets, or a call from us saying your application has an error, something is wrong. (We still have applications for about 70 people that were incomplete or had errors. ) It looks like I am finally caught up.

Take a good look at your confirmation letters to be sure that I got everything straight. I checked everything, but I was pretty rushed and wasn't at my best. Be sure I got you emergency contact information, t shirt sizes, bus rides and meals right. These are things I could have messed up that wouldn't get caught by my program.

I'm happy to report that the snow on my lawn is almost all melted and all the debris left during the winter is visible. Friday was the first day I was able to run without worrying about ice. Instead I had to watch out for mud. Our bikes are out of the shop and are ready. And even though there is not a speck of green to be seen, Saturday was the seed distribution day for the Garden Resource Program here and now I have seeds for radishes, lettuce, beets, turnips, peas, carrots, green beans and more. I'm not sure how far I can dig in the ground before I hit frozen dirt, but I'm ready.

Meals on PALM

All the meals on PALM are optional: you get to pick and choose the meals you want. PALM makes no money on the meals: what ever we collect, we pay to the people providing the meals. At times we've subsidized the meals. When I realized that the ride was filling up fast, I encouraged people, if money was tight, to at least register for PALM, that they have up to June 1 to add the meals (and bus rides for that matter). It looks like a lot of people took me up on that. The meal counts are down 40 to 50 from the meal counts last year for a similar number of people.

The meals are communal events. It's a time that all riders get together and that you get a chance to talk to other riders that you do not know in an informal setting, not as strangers. Some towns that we are staying at are small, eg Dowagiac, Sturgis, Hudson. There maybe only a couple of restaurants and few other food sources in town. If 200 or 300 additional people show up, they are going to be stressed. We warn restaurants at our site towns (and all along the route) that 700 people will be staying in their town (or will be riding past their place). I used to do this job. I would tell restaurants and groceries: think locusts. But sometimes the warnings are not enough. Consider buying the meals, at least some of them.

And if you are going to get the meals, please try to do it as early as you can. Don't wait until June 1. As part of registration, I'm in charge of the meal lists and counts. Things are always hectic at the beginning of June. Adding meals for 40 people , relaying the new meal counts to the site people, and mailing out new conformation letters would kill me.

(No) Wait List

I had a few days break before the next batch of applications arrived. I'm up to rider 643 as far as processing applications and mailing out confirmation letters are concerned. I probably have 100 more people to register. We've been returning late applications with regrets that the ride has filled.

A word about wait lists. PALM does not maintain a wait list. Instead we accept about 40 more than the 700 cutoff and expect cancellations so that we get down to the cutoff. Sort of like the airlines but, unlike the airlines, if not enough riders cancel, we live with it. If you check the counts from the previous 3 years on the website, you'll see we are generally above 700. One of the reasons is that we don't count support people as part of the 700. I expect one more batch of applications, then all that are left are applications with problems. Generally 10% of the applications have errors but this year there have been more, probably because of the rush.

I spoke too soon about being caught up. I got another batch of applications just now that take me up to rider 719. When I get though this batch (it could take me a couple of days), then I am caught up except for problem applications and you know who you are. Everyone who sent in an application should get a confirmation or a returned application by this weekend. If not, email us. We'll try to track it down.

Alternatives to PALM

As many of you know, PALM filled very quickly this year, and we have turned away a large number of potential riders. I think that PALM is a fairly unique ride in that we keep most of our daily distances to a maximum of about 50 miles, and we try to have a ride that appeals to a wide variety of ages and abilities. However, there are other rides in Michigan and our surrounding states that you might decide to try as an alternative to PALM. I will list some of them in this blog entry, and you can get details by checking out the web sites. As far as I can determine, these rides are not filled as of today (March 9).

The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure. www.goba.com. June 14-21, a 7 day loop ride. From what I have been told, this ride attracts the same variety of participants as PALM does. This year's route starts in Lorain County, southwest of Cleveland and follows roads down to the Mansfield area. Each year GOBA follows a different route, and this year's will be fairly hilly. The 7 days include 5 riding days of 45-60 miles each, with 2 layover days that include optional loop rides or alternate activities. The ride limit is 3000, and the fee does not include meals. GOBA has an excellent web site, with lots of details about the ride and an excellent rider handbook.

Across Ohio Bicycle Adventure (XOBA). July 19-26. www.outdoor-pursuits.org/xoba/ This year's route follows the Underground Railroad route from Cincinatti to Sandusky. 50 - 71 miles per day.

TRIRI. Ride across rural Indiana. June 22-28. www.triri.org. This year's route is in south central Indiana and has a rider limit of 500. The ride includes 3 days of 65 miles, and 3 layover days with optional loops.

Rides sponsored by the League of Michigan Bicyclists. www.lmb.org. The League sponsors several rides, including a weekend ride on May 31-June 1, and the Sunrise Adventure June 20-22. Their other 3 rides all have longer days and challenging hills.

If you want even more options, you can go to www.nbtda.com, and search for rides all over the country.

We sincerely hope that all of you find a biking adventure that you can enjoy in 2008. If you will not be on PALM this year, we also hope that you will be able to join us on PALM in 2009.

Ellie, PALM Mail Granny

Bike things in winter

Last weekend was a pretty good weekend for people who like biking. Saturday was the Bike Feast in Dearborn. It's a potluck dinner that had about 100 people who would rather be biking but at least could talk about biking with people who would listen. There were several speakers. One was the guy who organizes the Ann Arbor - Saline Classical Bicycle Swap Meet. He brought in several biles from the 30's and 40's. They were pretty amazing. He said most of the bikes were found in people's garages. He encouraged us to look in the garage. We had Robert Krzewinski from the League of Michigan Bicyclists reminding us of the work that they do and asking us to join. (LMB hosts the PALM web site.) Dale Hughes talk about velodromes and bicycle track racing. There will be a 3 day event at the velodrome in Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills at the beginning of May that he encouraged us all to go to. A good night for a winter night.

The next day was the PALM meeting. The route has already been laid out (and the maps go to the printer on April 1. No fooling.) The planning on all the sites (New Buffalo, Dowagaic, Sturgis, Coldwater, Hudson, Tecumseh, and Sterling State Park in Monroe) is well under way. The ride reached its 700 rider cutoff on February 19, earlier than last year. So far confirmations for 589 riders have been sent out.

Kevin Degen said that at long last his new bike (a trike) is being built. They had to change the design from a two wheels in front one to a two wheels in back one. Here is an picture of the frame. There will be a Bike Presentation and Celebration on March 30, 2:00 PM at Father Bill Borowski Activity Center at St. Hubert Church in Harrison Township. You can get there by taking the Metro Parkway exit off I-94 (exit 236), turning east, and going 3 miles. It's on the right side.

Managing Winter in Michigan

Being a cyclist and making it through a Michigan winter can be a challenge. Some ride in their basement on an indoor trainer they got for Christmas, some ride at the gym, some even go out of state to get their ride fix. Some don't ride at all.

There are a few hearty souls that ride outdoors, in the snow and cold. You just need the properly equipped bike, and the right clothes. Yes, I am one of these seemingly crazy people. I find the hardest part not to be the actual riding, but getting up the motivation to gear-up and leave a warm house. Once outside (and after the cold first mile), the tranquility of being out in the woods, on the frozen lake, or a quiet country road takes over and is quite enjoyable.

However, I did try out riding indoors this year. No, not on a trainer, rollers, or an exercise bike. I'm talking about real riding. Mountain biking in fact. My son and I went to Ray's indoor mountain bike park outside of Cleveland and spent the weekend. Rays is a unique 90,000 square foot facility that puts your bike handling skills to the test. We road almost 40 miles, and while that doesn't sound like much, remember it was all indoors.

Now that PALM is full and spring is fast approaching, I being asked for training tips and how to prepared for PALM. Here is what I tell people:

PALM is geared toward families and beginners and the daily mileages reflect that. However, how easy the ride will be for you, and especially how much you enjoy yourself, is directly proportional to how well you prepare.

The first thing you should do is to be sure your bike is in good working order. If you don’t know much about how to work on your bike, take it to your local bike shop. While there, ask them to see if the bike is properly setup for you. Have them look at the seat height, tilt, and fore-aft position, as well as the handlebar position to be sure everything is set up properly for you when you sit on the bike. Remember that these are starting positions and as you ride you may want to make additional adjustments. Ask the shop what adjustments affect what so you might be able to do them yourself.

Now that your bike is ready for you, you need to get ready for your bike. There is no rocket science involved here. It basically comes down to spending as much time in the saddle as possible. Start riding in the spring as soon as the weather permits. Try to ride at least 3 times a week. How far for each ride is up to you, but in the beginning, try for at least 10 miles. After 2 weeks, add 5 to 10 miles to each ride. Again, after a few weeks add another 5 to 10 miles per ride. Continue this gradual building up until you get to at least one 50-mile ride each week right up to PALM.

The “secret” is to not only build up your muscles and aerobic capacity, but to become comfortable in the riding position and especially on the saddle. Everyone, even Lance Armstrong, gets a sore posterior. Remember, PALM is not a race. Wear proper bike shorts. Take a “butt break” every 15 minutes or so while riding. Stand on the pedals and stretch. Get off the bike for a few minutes every 10 to 20 miles. Take in the sights along the way. Stop for lunch or do some shopping.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at sproketsandspokes@tir.com

Spring morning in winter

When I got up this morning it was almost 50 degrees and you could see the sun. This after a week where we've either had snow storms or lows around 11. Sunny, but cold. The forecast is for falling temperatures and snow by dinner. You've got to love Michigan. It forces you to live in the moment. Which brings us to PALM. PALM allows you to live in the moment. You have very little responsibilities on PALM. You get up. You eat breakfast. You pack up. You ride. You setup. You finally have the time to look around you and notice that it is summer and you are in Michigan.

Things are changing here, but slowly. I run in the morning. Because the days are getting longer (and because I work), I'm now running at dawn. The last couple of days have been sunny so that I've started to hear the dawn chorus of birds. I swear I heard robins although I can't imagine what robins do when it is 11 degrees and the ground is covered with snow. I've also taken my bike into the shop to get ready. Maybe the weather will get the idea.

So far I have entered applications for 579 people. (I mailed confirmations for 75 people this morning. I'll mail the confrimations for 80 more once I have checked the confirmations against the applications to make sure I haven't made mistakes.) I have 140-160 more people to process. I may only be 2 1/2 weeks behind, hey almost caught up.