So 2016 is over, making it my first full year of cycling, having been bitten by the cycling bug in the spring of 2015. Like last year's summary of my 2015 cycling, this post looks back on my 2016 cycling with my geeky-data eyes.

I titled the post with the word "Reflections" so that I can sprinkle these kinds of photos throughout:

So, in 2016 my cycling year was eight months long, and during those eight months, I rode to some extent or another on 102 days, totaling 8,459km (5,256mi). On average that's about 83km (52mi) each time, twice a [...]

Everyone is familiar with Google Maps, but for various reasons (cost, quality, expressability), many mapping applications use map data from OpenStreetMap ("OSM") instead. It's free to use and anyone can add/edit/update it pretty much in real time... it's like Wikipedia, but for maps.

I have particular interest in it because lots of cycling-stuff uses OpenStreetMap data...

I use the maps on my phone when riding, via the Galileo Offline Maps app (name changed Feb 2019 to Guru Maps), and sometimes with the Maps.me app.

I plan my cycling routes with OpenStreetMap data, via GraphHopper. The Strava route builder also uses [...]

After long rides on Wednesday and Thursday, and a very hard workout at the gym on Friday, my legs have been extremely sore, so today I went on an easy "recovery ride" in the city, just to get my muscles moving a bit.

It was nice... I go the "KOM" (best registered time) on the highly-sought-after "Jolly Hat" segment.

Doing an image search for "Strava art" yields many impressive results. Some are sort of "fake", like this famous "cyclist" drawing and this famous "bear" drawing, but many are real and amazing. (I put "fake" in quotes because they are indeed [...]

So, my web site was down for a few days. Sorry about that.

It doesn't happen often, but this time was a doozy. The ISP hosting my server went bankrupt, and by the time I found out, my server was sitting dead on the floor of a warehouse.

I've got to say, though, I'm actually very thankful.

My web hosting has always been free, a kind, ongoing gift from a former coworker at Yahoo!. Even though we haven't talked for a decade, he's let my server sit in his business and occasionally burn up some of his support staff's time. [...]

I had quite the little cycling adventure yesterday, venturing into some areas I'd never been, and facing the most heinously-steep road I'd ever seen. The total distance was 191km (118mi), making it my 7th-longest ride ever. This blog post, mostly as a diary for myself, is almost as long.

The distance was no problem, but as it seems with many of my longer rides, lack of time management does me in and I have to kill myself to get back in time for something (in this case Saturday-evening Mass).

The outline of this ride was simple... head down to Iga [...]