CPAP

How the doctor described it:

What it's really like:

Operation HTHU: The Suffer-ring

As I rolled out this morning, I made a promise to myself: No more granny ring. I've spent far too long in the small chainring on The Twelve. My new route has more hills, but it's not spectacularly hilly. I can do this. Mission accomplished, and my average speed is back up a bit, too, no surprise.

The rat maze.

he bizarre maze of residential roadways between 103rd and 91st streets still messes with me. I can honestly say I have never taken the exact same route twice, riding to work or riding back home. Part of it is me trying to find the friendliest route. The other part is me just missing turns. For instance, Knox crosses Connell about 8 different times, and one of those times, I should probably turn. I always miss the turn, if I even find myself on Connell in the first place.
  

Also, I've been having trouble working out since I started the new heart meds a few weeks ago. It feels like my body runs out of steam a lot quicker than usual. The cardiologist said that the stuff I'm on has been known to knock dozens of beats-per-minute off a person's maximum heart rate (that is, the fastest one's heart is able to beat under strenuous exercise) and that he wouldn't worry if my max HR had gone from the 180s down to the 150s or so.

Today, I wore my heart rate monitor and went full-on King Of The Mountain sprint on 108th street as it veers south and uphill to become Lamar Ave.


Nope. Ticker's still working fine.  I saw low 180s, but by the time I could get my camera out, I'd slowed down a bit. I guess my fatigue just means I had better harden the hell up. I'm working on that.

It's Limited Warren T!

Always good to see Warren out and about.

Bike week has begun!

As usual, I plan to hit several Overland Park sponsored events.

Let's meet up at some of these!  It looks like the old Deanna Rose stop got axed, but in its place is Quivira Park. I will be there Monday! Tuesday's event is a no-brainer. It's half a mile from my office.  And, of course, I can't miss Friday's event at City Hall. Aside from Tuesday (I'll probably get there around 8:15 since it's so close to work) I plan on 7:00, 7:15 or so for the others.

The days are getting longer...

But there's more night riding in my future!  Enter: Dynohub. An awesome early b-day present from The commuterDude himself!

Also, I went to the hospital this week with an episode of Atrial Fibrillation. I'm okay now, but my heart was in an irregular rhythm for about 10 hours. A little bit of a scare. After having a bunch of tests run by my new Cardiologist and Pulmonologist, they agree that sleep apnea probably caused it. I've got a sleep study coming up, but both of them say that the best thing I can do is keep on riding, so here's to more Dark Side Rides!

Second bike commute of 2013

March 2013 DSR

Tired of dealing with aging and/or unreliable lighting, I picked this up yesterday. a Dark Side Ride provided the final nudge to pick up something relatively inexpensive in the "to see with" category. The optics leave something to be desired, but it's bright enough for my riding style. 120 lumens, but it does okay with them. The Flare 3 tail light is superior to my SuperFlash, but not by much. It offers much better side lighting.


The route. I wasn't keeping track. I don't think it was quite 20 miles by the time I count the 3 miles getting to and from the start.  Jason and Al were also in the mix.


Quick blurry shot of the Twelve. It was a beautiful night for a ride. For those keeping count, this is my second ride the bike in 2013, if you don't count little errands within a few miles of home. I'm slacking.

First bike commute of 2013.

It took me long enough to get around to it. The route shown last night was the plan. The reality is that I missed a turn somewhere on the way to the office and my wayfinding intuition took over. Some parts of the planned route didn't make any sense at all once I got there (like the jog onto the bike path at 123rd before Foster) and were similarly replaced ad-hoc.

There seem to be no better ways to cross 435 than taking sections of 103rd and Antioch in rush hour traffic without adding significant time and mileage to the ride. That little stretch is the worst of it. The rest of the route is quite pleasant.

Total mileage for the round trip: just under 20. Not a bad day on the bike, but my lack of conditioning was apparent.

Here's the "cue sheet" from my route starting at about 87th and Quivira, with notes:

• Turn right onto Quivira Rd
• Turn left onto W 91st St
• Turn right onto Reeder Dr
• Turn left onto W 92nd St
• Turn right onto Switzer Rd
• Turn left onto Taylor Dr 103rd - I totally missed it this morning. It cost me some time and finding my way out of cul-de-sac hell.
• Continue onto Perry Ln
• Turn left onto Wedd St
• Turn left onto Connell Dr
• Turn left onto W 99th Terrace
• Turn right onto Grandview Dr
• Turn left onto W 103rd St -- Lots of impatient people heading to highway on-ramps.
• Turn right onto Antioch Rd -- Lots of impatient people heading to highway on-ramps.
• Turn left onto W 108th Terrace
• Slight right onto Lowell Ave/Lowell St
• Turn right onto W 115th St -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Turn left onto Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Slight right toward Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Turn left toward Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
• Turn right onto Lowell Ave  -- JC nichols subdivisions are all F***ING MAZES!
• Turn left onto W 123rd St
• Turn right onto Foster
• Turn left onto W 132nd St
• Arrive at Metcalf and 132nd St.

All in all, not a bad route. The homeward route was exactly according to plan, but in reverse. 

New job. New route.

I have been more than a bit mum lately. I accepted a new job at the beginning of the year. My old team was awesome, and I keep in touch. My new job is where my passion really is, though: Information security research. While I feel like my old route was as bike-friendly as it could get out here in suburbia, by comparison my new route is a bit more daunting. You can clearly see how my bailiwick is sectioned into islands by highways, where crossings are few, far-between and often part of high-traffic interchanges riddled with frenetic and distracted motorists. The beta test of this route starts tomorrow!