I hope everyone had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend filled with family, friends and lot of good times. Last week was a busy week and the end of the school year is upon us. But that didn't keep the Almond Freikers from their mission of riding and walking to school every day. These kids are committed!Week 10 Stats !
The students at Almond are way out front in the nation. In the last 30 days they have rode more freiker round trips and way more miles than any other school in the nation.... by a long shot!
- Almond remains the #1 school in the nation by almost 300 rides.
- 4,637 Freiker round trips recorded.
- 7,000 miles traveled.
- Daily Average 108 Freiker walks / rides this week.
- 2.3 tons of CO2 emissions prevented.
- 348,000 calories burned.
What better place to spend the Memorial Day weekend than New Orleans, Louisiana. That's exactly where the Almond Freikers landed on Friday after a long ride from Key West, FL, up the gulf coast of Florida and then heading west.
New Orleans SkylineNew Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River. The city is named after Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans, Regent of France, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It is well known for its multicultural and multilingual heritage cuisine, architecture, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz), and its annual Mardi Gras and other celebrations and festivals. The city is often referred to as the "most unique" city in America. It is also referred to as "The Big Easy' or 'Nola'. The population of the city of New Orleans is about 470,000 people.
New Orleans was founded May 7, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris (1763) and remained under Spanish control until 1801, when it reverted to French control. Most of the surviving architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from this Spanish period. Napoleon sold the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, and Creole French. Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city.
In the early 20th century, New Orleans was a progressive major city whose most portentous development was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood. Until then, urban development was largely limited to higher ground along the natural river levees and bayous. Wood's pump system allowed the city to expand into low-lying areas. Over the 20th century, rapid subsidence, both natural and human-induced, left these newly- populated areas several feet below sea level. New Orleans was vulnerable to flooding even before the age of negative elevation. In the late 20th century, however, scientists and New Orleans residents gradually became aware of the city's increased vulnerability. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy killed dozens of residents, even though the majority of the city remained dry. The rain-induced May 8, 1995 Flood demonstrated the weakness of the pumping system. Since that time, measures were taken to repair New Orleans's hurricane defenses and restore pumping capacity. Here is a map showing the cities elevation below sea level:
New Orleans elevation map
The largest of the city's many music festivals is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Commonly referred to simply as "Jazz Fest", it is one of the largest music festivals in the nation, featuring crowds of people from all over the world, coming to experience music, food, arts, and crafts. Despite the name, it features not only jazz but a large variety of music, including both native Louisiana music and international artists. Along with Jazz Fest, New Orleans' Voodoo Experience ("Voodoo Fest") and the Essence Music Festival are both large music festivals featuring local and international artists. Other major festivals held in the city include Southern Decadence, the French Quarter Festival, and the Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival.
Baskin-Robbins Awards For Week 10 !
Last week was the final week for the Baskin-Robbins free ice cream cone. Sorry folks, but I'm all out of coupons :( We had 63 lucky Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone winners this week. You guys are awesome!
Spot Pizza Awards So Far !
22 Lucky Pizza winners so far. Way to go kids - keep it up!
Year End Awards !
Well, thanks for all of the input everyone. I really do appreciate your quick responses to Linda's concerns. So the verdict is in and I am going to leave the iPod shuffles out of the picture. I will have choice of bike computers, tail lights or Jamba Juice gift certificate for the top 75% riders and all freikers will get a grab bag of simple things. I'll come up with some special recognition in front of the whole school for those that rode every day.
Once the list is finalized, I will publish to this group. Awards will be passed out on June 8th and 9th. I will need your help to fly air cover with your kids though, I'm not sure where there expectations are with the types of awards.
Freiker Is On The Roll Again !
I want to thank everyone that joined us on the Freiker Rolls To Egan ride on Sunday. We had about 12 folks show up for the ride over to Egan and then to Baskin-Robbins. We have 3 more scheduled for the weeks to come:
- May 31st @ 10:30am - Freiker Rolls to Redwood Grove. Bring a picnic lunch with you (a backpack works fine) and we'll take a nature walk around Redwood Grove. We'll also hang out in the shade of Shoop Park while the kids burn off some extra energy. Approx 5 miles.
- June 7th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Foothill College: Foothill College is a nearby junior college nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. But how many of you have actually been there? We'll take a lap around the campus and head back through downtown Los Altos for some refreshments. Approx 8 miles.
- June 14th @ 1:00pm - Freiker Rolls to Hidden Villa: Tucked back in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Hidden Villa is a great place for a kid to spend some time interacting with nature, taking a walk and learning about environmental conservation. Fun for the whole family! I'll need a couple of adult volunteers on this one to help escort the group along Moody Rd. Approx 12 miles.
I have booked the Library for Wed, June 27th from 7-8:00pm to talk to all of the Almond parents about what has worked with the program and what has not. What can we do to make the program more effective next year? My goal is to see us push the ridership up to 25% of the student population - at this point, we need more bike racks at the school - that's a good probem !
- We have about 50% of the student body signed up for Freiker. What about the other 50% who didn't? What would have helped them get over the hump?
- We now have about 20% of the school commuting to school by walking or biking every day. What about the other 80%?
- We have kids that ride and walk every day but aren't Freikers... why not?
- I've had lots of questions about t-shirts, etc. I'd like to hear your opinion on this. Would you buy them if they were offered?
- We were going to change a registration fee this year. I actually wanted to but someone talked me out of it - it was a good thing :) I don't want to change one next year either but store-to-store solicitation is a lot of work. What are you thought?
Freiker Night for LASD !
As you all know, there has been lots of interest from other schools about the Freiker program but there is also very little understanding about what it is and how it works. Can you imagine that? Now you know what the pioneers must have felt like... :)
Anyway, Egan has a grant for a Freikometer and Santa Rita has just been offered a grant for a Freikometer - now they just need to come find out what that all means to them. Anyone of the Almond parents that wants to come and share their perspective on Freiker are welcome. You folks probably have a lot more credibility and expertise about this program than most people on the planet. I'll be giving an overview of the program and walking through the Almond program for this year, the costs, where the efforts go and the logistics of setting it up.
Ladies Only Demo Day At The Bicycle Outfitter !
Sign up for our Ladies Only Demo Day! - You need to register in advance!
http://www.bicycleoutfitter.com/Saturday, May 30th from 9am to 6pm
- Raffle
- Clinics and Seminars
- How to fix a flat
- Basic bicycle maintenance
- Nutrition
- Bike Fit
- Factory representatives will be onsite to off their products and answer your questions in our bike expo area.
- Organized group rides for ladies only will be leaving from the Bicycle Outfitter.
- Visit the Shawsu Workout Studio in our expo area for a day of fun and complete body fitness.
- Warm up/Cool down demo for ride participants.
- Personal training demos.
- Pilates demo.
- Chair massage.
- Health Fair.
Well, I didn't get to do the Saturday club ride since I went to Davis for a family birthday party. I heard that the ride was shortened due to the wet and cold on the other side of the Santa Cruz Mtns where MVV was headed. It was pretty foggy and wet. I did however, join MVV for a ride on Monday - the off day rides are usually shorter but today was very, very hard. We left the Bicycle Outfitter at 9:00am and climbed to the top of Montebello Rd., took the open space trail across to Page Mill Rd., Page Mill up to Skyline and over the back side just far enough to catch some incredible views of the fog and then back down Page Mill to Peets. A couple of points about this ride:
- The open space trail is a dirt and gravel road and something that should not be done on a racing bike. But we did it anyway. I hate this section. The road is rutted, there are lots of steep uphill and downhills and it is dirt and gravel. The skinny racing tires never really get a chance to gain traction. Lots of time you are trying to go up a hill and your back wheel is spinning behind you or you are navigating a descent and your front wheel is snow plowing through the gravel. I have crashed on this section of trail before and it is no fun picking gravel out of your legs. On the other hand, this is what the guys wanted to do today....
- Any ride that averages 1,000 ft of vertical ascent for every 10 miles is hard! Today we did 3,900 ft of climbing on a 32 mile ride. This kind of riding will get your heart rate up :)
- Ride Stats:
- Rolling time: 2 hrs and 22 mins.
- Distance: 32.3 miles
- Elevation Gain: 3,900 ft (ouch!)
- Ave Speed: 13.6 mph
- Max Speed: 40.5 mph
- Ave HR: 138 bpm
- Max HR: 190 bpm
- Calories: 2,600 kcals metabolized
- MotionBased Map: Up Montebello, Down Page Mill
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Every Ride Counts!
Jon
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