Day 1. The first time I did this, I started the month off with like, 5 consecutive 5 hour rides, which made me totally screwed for the next 25 days. Fair enough. Ill start off small.
One hour off road cross loop lunch ride. Easy peasy.

Day 2. The aforementioned punisher with all of the maniacs from the East Bay. They were on suspension bikes, I was on a cross bike, but despite this fact, I gave it my all, and never got left behind.
So much for taking it easy.

Day 3. A recovery ride sounds like a nice idea. I jump on the road bike, and not 5 minutes later run into Brian Vernor. We have a leisurely hour plus spin, and go home for peanuts and beer.

Day 4. Ive found an amazing half dirt, (open space easement, which means no cars), half road ride that pretty much takes me to my post at work. I can add a little road, or I can add a little dirt. Today I added alot of dirt, though I was on my road bike. 1.5 hours. Thats about standard. Its 20 degrees when I leave my house.

Day 5. Same as above but Im on a cross bike, and way more road riding is involved. Its 25 degrees when I leave my house. The descent is so cold, my junk hurts.

Day 6. One hour off road lunch ride on the cross bike.

Day 7. An hour and a half pre-work easement, off road/road cross ride.
Its continuing to be very cold in the mornings. I dont like that very much.

Day 8. Because I was going to be enroute to Loudasses gun and booze show today, I knew I was ether going to have to ride the rollers for an hour at midnight, or wake up at 5, and do it then. I chose the latter. This day sucked. One hour= numb junk.

Day 9. 18 degrees up there in them hills. Bee, Friendly Paul and I set out to explore, and try not to get eaten by any locals in the process. One and a half hours = numb everything else.

Day 10. Today its 15 degrees when I leave the house. An hour and a half. My sweaty hair froze.

Day 11. Cross bike lunch dirt ride. One hour. I like seeing the sun again.

Day 12. I brought out the mountain bike today. She hasnt seen much action as of late, so I was ripping around for an hour and a few on her this morning. Id forgotten how easy it is to descend with a suspension fork, and began marveling how it is anybody has ever crashed on a mountain bike. Then I almost crashed.

Day 13. One hour on the rollers. Im mesmerized by my reflection in the oil slick that had dripped from my forehead onto the ground.

Day 14. My leg cramped getting out of bed. I have to remember to drink more water. Easy hour and a half long half dirt, half paved ride on the cross bike. Again, its in the low 20s when I head from home and later I almost crash on a frozen puddle.

Day 15. Im determined to find a path from point A to point B so I ride deep into the woods, and begin an ascent up a game trail past a make shift archery range. I then ditch my bike and bush whack until I reach the summit, and upon emerging from the brush, have no idea where I am. Amazingly I have lost the slight trail I came up on. At one point on my descent to find my bike, I found myself hanging, ala Wile E. Coyote from a sprig of a branch, while lowering myself onto a narrow and questionably stable ledge which sits atop a drop that Im not comfortable with the idea of falling from. Two hours, excluding the near death part.

Day 16. Just over two hours on the one speed cross bike, all off road. I went to take a picture of 'Cardiac Hill' (theres a reason its called that), when I suddenly found myself doing hill repeats on it.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Day 17. An hour and a half road ride. This was actually the best road ride Ive been on since I moved from the East Bay, and I felt really good to boot. If I was a more foolish man, Id think things were getting easier.

Day 18. On account of cause I had a whole heap of stuff to transport to work, I had to drive, so I hustled home and did a big old cross loop. Again, taking a left where I usually take a right, and I found myself riding up, then running up, then limping up the longest, steepest, and most perfectly made set of jumps, and berms Ive ever seen. It was well off the beaten path, all along the ridge, and complete with water breaks. Soon I will ride it going the correct direction.

Day 19. Cold, cold early morning cross ride. Im bored. I found a cool fence though...

Day 20. Young Hightower, who is engaging in this foolish endeavor as well, albiet one day later then myself, was mentioning how great he felt, and how on his last ride he was turning the pedals with ease.
Why did my day 20 feel so shitty? Heck, why did my day 2 feel so shitty? Then it dawned on me, Young Hightower is 13 years my junior. This is why he feels good, and I dont. Thats my story and Im sticking to it. This afternoon I did a long, and wonderful third single track, third fire road, and third road ride. I felt like a champ, untill I very narrowly avoided getting creamed by a guy in a pickup who by the looks of things was reading the news paper on the seat next to him as he drove.

Day 21. Back into the hills, exploring a bunch of new single track/ game trails onto a quiet easement/ road ride. One more hour and some change in the bag. Feeling good two days in a row? This has to be a mistake.

Day 22. Yup. Its a mistake. Today I was barely able to make it out of bed. Partly Im guessing this is due to the fact that I, Like Garfield hate mornings, but mainly due to the reality of having been on a bike more then Ive not been on a bike lately.. Same kind of ride Ive been doing more then less, but with the addition of a cross course loop. Part road, part off the radar access road, and a whole heaping load of single track. I think Demonikas been beating me up in my sleep. Tomorrows gonna be a better day.

Day 23. Due to the fact that I feel kinda crummy, and may or may not be participating in the cross season closer tomorrow, I spent an hour on the rollers, and not a second more. No intervals, no sustained efforts, no nothin. Just an 11 mile per hour spin through the quiet country roads of my mind.

Day 24. Rode out to Watsonville. 20 miles of rolling hills. Lovely ride, realized my rear der is out of adjustment so Im unable to reach the top two cogs. Considered racing the cross finals, but just drank a 24 oz. can of beer instead.

Day 25. Im tired of this. My legs feel of ass, and I want to sleep in, but its better then being in the hospital.
Mellow, road, off road ride, pedaling in squares.

Day 26. Just to give you an idea of where my head was at today... I was running around my house, in the dark this morning trying to decide if it was too cold for shorts. Indecisiveness is a sign of I-dont-want-to-do-this-anymore syndrome. Finally, I donned my helmet and said to myself 'it smells like cat pee in here.' I smelled my mess bag, with inconclusive results, and then bailed. At the end of my ride I stopped for a coffee. When I took my hemet off, I saw that there was another (rather foul smelling) cycling cap smashed up in there. Laughing, I grabbed my bike and bailed only until I realized a block later Id forgotten my coffee.
Young Hightower said his first thought upon waking up this morning was 'alright! Its Saturday!'
Its not. Today is Tuesday.

Day 27. The second day in a row Ive screwed up the painfully simple task of setting my alarm. To ad insult to injury, the power went out. Not everywhere mind you, just my house, and one other on the street. As Im stumbling through the darkness, my riding partner for the day, Joe, is knocking at my door. The fact that I even made it out the door with my shorts on frontwards is a miracle. More road/ off road today. We rode mountain bikes, and despite the fact that my body is in a shambles, I felt pretty good, and again realized that all of my time riding a cross bike has given me the ability to descend with a suspension fork like a damn demon.
The mantra "A bad day on a bike is still better then a good day at work" kept going through my head.

Day 28. I was on my cross bike today, wondering what I was gonna get into when I came across Troy. He gave me the skinny on a connector road that comes complete with a slew of 'no trespassing' signs. I rode a way-under-the-radar single track, to a long road climb, past the gates and foreboding markers onto an amazing rolling and desolate road ride. Regardless of all of this, I feel as if someone removed my legs and beat me repeatedly with them in my sleep.

Day 29. Midway into my one speed cross ride, I remembered I had to return home to grab my rent check, so I did a meandering hour long, mostly flat road ride into work. To finish off what most assuredly was the last of my juice however, I rode the rollers for 40 minutes when I got home. Retodded cheered me with a beer this afternoon and said 'heres to doing what has got to be the dumbest thing Ive ever heard of. Twice.'
Yeah, heres to that.

Day 30. I woke up this morning, laying on my back, and both of my hands were asleep. Young Hightower, and Dano came to my aid and helped me limp through the glory of the 30th day.
Truth be told, I felt pretty spry today, as we noodled through the woods, on my way to salvation.
The last day of my first 30 held a final blow out that had me cracked like an egg during the final descent.
Holding with tradition, todays remaining miles had to be ridden with one eye closed, much like those ridden after so many final calls. My head felt light as a feather, and my legs were cardboard tubes. I smashed my celebratory beer, and folded the top back perfectly in its original state. Its a rough guess, but assuming each ride was an hour and a half or so, which consisted of about 18 miles each, I figure Ive got 45 hours on the bike and in the neighborhood of 540 miles behind me.
Today I bid a fond, fond farewell to this years 30 in 30, and the time is now to go lie down and watch the ceiling for two or three days.

Finally, and in accordance of my standard writing style that tends to link up bits of information which have nothing to do with one another, Young Hightower informed me today that Strong Distribution, the company who is responsible for bringing us our delicious and refreshing Budweiser over here in these neck of the woods, is using bio-diesel in all of their trucks. Getting drunk has never felt so environmentally responsible.