Monday, October 08, 2007

35 miles on the mountain bike

The temperatures were in the low 70's when I got out from work. The sun had been burning most of the precipitation off of the pavement, and the winds were a favorable 7 miles per hour out of the north. Not exactly a tailwind, but I'll take a diagonal push over a headwind any day.

Long story short: even though I'm on my mountain bike, it would practically be a sin to let an afternoon like this go to waste by taking the bus. I went on the Trek ride after I got home, too. Total, I snuck in more than 35 miles today, all on the Sorrento.

Long story long: I got changed and packed as much of my belongings as possible into my backpack. Friday, I accidentally left my new tennis shoes at work and wore my dress shoes home. My old tennis shoes were used this morning to get me to work and they were still water-logged. I left them there with my dress shoes, and wore my new tennies home.

I took Wyandotte to 13th or so, then zigged over to Baltimore to continue south toward Southwest Boulevard. The bridge is still out over I-670, and I was met with some construction netting, road blocks, and a foreign pedestrian who was entirely bamboozled by the situation. "How to go other side?" she inquired. Heavy equipment sat idle on the tattered bridge. I told her to walk across carefully. No one was around. I bunny-hopped and rode over some of the construction netting and took the bridge as well.

Once across, I was home-free. The rest of the trip was business as usual. I did notice something that I wish I'd seen ages before. At one of the little parks near Turkey Creek Trail, there is a water faucet. This is about 2/3 to my apartment from work, and I don't know how many times I've found myself near that fountain running critically low on water.

After making some dinner for my wife and I, I took off to the Trek Store ride. Badger (whom I usually see when I ride with CommuterDude) met me there. All in all, there was a pretty massive turnout. They're changing locations for the forseeable future, over at 82nd and Metcalf. Mark Thomas will send me some shortcut tips, but I think the end result will actually be a shorter distance to the Monday night rides if I cut across 91st street.

Anyhow, I wrapped up the day with a little more than 35 miles of riding. Not awesome for a Monday, but not a bad day overall.

Also, I raised my Sorrento's seat up a bit on the way home as I passed through Rosedale and it helped with the leg fatigue I was getting. Given the forecast tomorrow, I'll probably end up on the road bike, but next time I use the Sorrento, it should be much easier to ride. It gave me no problems at all during the Monday night recovery ride, so I think it's dialed in properly again.

Random Tunage:
Laurent Wolf - Happy TV
K's Choice - Not an Addict

3 comments:

Sirrus Rider said...

35 Miles on an MTB.. Hey that's my commute.. ;D

Anonymous said...

So, why are they moving the Trek ride away from the Trek store? I haven't been able to come since August to the ride because my son is on a gonzo overachieving kids football team in BV (of course) and they practice 6-7:30.

I did B4B Sunday before last, I thought you were going to ride it??

Noah said...

Sorry Tim, couldn't make it to Bike For The Brain. That sounds like a bunch of zombies! Mmmm. Braaaains. My weekends have been crazy lately.

The reasons Mark pointed out:
* La Tienda Casa Whatever at 82nd and Metcalf is a team sponsor, and Mexican food is good.

* We've worn out the nuance of all the roads near the Trek Store and it's time for some new adventures.

I think these might have something to do with it, too:

* Trek Store is closing earlier in the off-season.

* The Trek Store don't like us drinking beer, crowding the store and making a mess after closing time, which we've been doing a lot of lately.

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