Hammerfest

Well, I was going to meet up with Lorin this morning, but couldn't find him. I was running about 5 minutes behind again this morning because of this. As I made my way up to Johnson Drive on Merriam Lane, I had trouble getting the light to change, and no cars were around to trigger it. Remembering back to Monday, I decided to hit the crosswalk button and get back out into the street. Just as I hit the button, I heard Chris screaming at me. I guess he was running even further behind than I was! He always seems to catch up, though.

I tried a newish trick at the stoplight at Broadway on Southwest Blvd. I took the center lane. The right lane is always crowded with people that want to turn right a block up the road. The left lane is a left turn lane onto broadway. The center lane usually has a little less traffic, but the people there are the kind of people who don't want to be stuck behind the slow-down as the right-turners take their sweet time. That means they probably don't want to be stuck behind a slow cyclist either.

The solution? Hammer it. I knew I'd have to make the death slog up Baltimore in just a few blocks, but I hammered in spite of it. I ignited my legs into a high-RPM fury of pain and suffering, working my way through the middle ring and never switching to the third. Faster, legs! FASTER! I held about 30 MPH for a few blocks until getting stopped at the light on Baltimore. The car that was behind me at Broadway was far enough back that I knew I had succeeded in not slowing him down. I made my way up the death slog, and fan into the narrow section where Baltimore narrows to one lane (with a wall on one side) for construction. I had a car behind me, and I was already in the low gear of my middle ring from the climb. I hammered it again, this time for only a block, and uphill, not on level pavement.

Then, I coasted in for coffee. Oh, wonderful coffee!

My legs hurt. Have I mentioned that I haven't used my granny ring at all this week? Maybe monday morning on Baltimore, but ever since, I've been able to tackle all my hills on the middle ring without having to get out of the seat.

Random Tunage:
Moonman (a.k.a. Ferry Corsten) - Galaxia
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money, Mo Problems

It never gets easier...

...you just get faster. -- Greg Lemond

I'm living that right now. Of course, my average speed isn't really up that much, but I'm starting to not lose it on the hills as much as I have been in recent weeks. It could be that it's early in the week and that I've been getting almost enough sleep lately. Whatever it is, I'm able to maintain speeds on uphills a little better, and stay in higher gears. It certainly doesn't FEEL any easier, but the speedometer isn't lying. I'm going a little faster. I'll know later this week if it's a progressive thing or just a fluke.

Not much exciting stuff this evening. I rode to lunch, and ran some errands on my way home. Will this be the week I actually make 5 full round trips totally by bike?!

Random Tunage:
Hybrid - Sinequanon
Real McCoy - Another Night

I got some ink. w00t.

No tattoos here! Sorry for the crappy scan. The letter printed across 2 columns and the scanner I have access to isn't the best... it's a 200dpi fax machine, basically. Thanks for the write-up, Philip!

I got out about 5 minutes later than I'd have liked to this morning. It makes a lot of difference in traffic -- more than I'd have expected, actually. On my way into town, I saw a few southbound bike commuters, and way ahead of me on Southwest boulevard, I saw someone, but didn't bother trying to catch up. The past two days riding alone have been kind of peaceful and calm. I tend to push myself to keep up with people when others are riding with me, whereas this morning, I barely broke a sweat.

I saw my car-club buddy, Jason as I went through Antioch. He lives there in Merriam, and I see him on occasion. Last time I saw him, he didn't know the guy he passed on a bike was me. This time he gave me a friendly honk and wave. I recognized him in my rear view, though, so it didn't bother me.

As I got up to 13th street on Baltimore, I saw Lorin ride by. I caught up with him and dragged him to Starbucks for some coffee. It sounds like he might join the bike commuter convoy on occasion. The more, the merrier!

Random Tunage:
Reflekt Ft. Delline Bass - Need To Feel Loved (12" Club Mix)
Nine Inch Nails - God Given

Heck of a ride, and my 13 seconds of fame

It was dry when I left from work. I have no clue what happened. Radar showed the recent trend of storms moving SOUTHWEST (What the heck?!) again. I figured I was in the clear.

When I got outside, it was muggy, overcast, but cooler than it was last week. I went for it.

Right about the time I got to the old Drive-In, I feel some moisture on my leg. It's really cold, so I figured it's condensation from my melting bottle of ice. Then I feel another drop on my leg a few seconds later. Then, it hits my helmet. It keeps this up for quite a while, probably to 69 highway, which is a few minutes away.

By the time I get to Lamar, it's starting to drizzle. When I get to Antioch (another 5 minutes down the road), I am in the midst of a rain shower. A cold, pleasant rain shower that is starting to get me very, very soggy. I blast down Merriam lane after Antioch, and it's like buckets just opened up. It felt really good and I knew I had warm clothes and a towel waiting for me at home. Had I not been sweating over the fact that my panniers could be slowly filling with water and drowning my MacBook, I would have turned it into a leisurely stroll.

Anyhow, I made it home okay. I got dried off and prepared the MTB for the Monday night ride. I wimped out and took it on the back of the Explorer. GRR @ ME! I'm such a loser sometimes, but I had other errands to run before coming home that wouldn't have been practical on bike, and my headlight was not going to last me, as I used it both directions today. Sorry, when it's raining, the headlight is on.

The Monday ride was nice. It kicked off a little late and we had some mechanicals early on. Nothing some elbow grease and spare tubes couldn't fix, though. All in all, I put in just about 40 miles today. Not too bad, I suppose.

I hear that KC Star is going to publish a letter to the editor that features my blog tomorrow morning. It was sent in by Philip that works at the Trek Store. I knew it was in the works for more than a week, but I didn't know who sent it in until I saw the text of the letter today, which had Philip's name on it. If I can find it, I'll have to pick up a copy and post a picture of the snippet. I think KC Star keeps some of their letters to the editor online too, so I might be able to link to it.

2000 miles and evening plans

I officially passed 2000 miles for the year on my way to work this morning. With onlyt 440 of those miles coming from recreational riding, that's a lot of money saved on gasoline and wear/tear on my car. Also, consider that each time I drive my car, the fuel and parking costs alone are about $9. Today's my 107th day of bicycle commuting this year. If you do the numbers and account for the $15 per month bus pass and about 1 inner tube per month, I've saved over $800 in commuting expenses so far. Sure, I've spent over $1000 in bicycle stuff since January 1st, but hey... I'll break even eventually, right? By my numbers, I will have paid for my bike in transportation savings by September or so. Besides, if you count what 7 months of membership at a gym would cost to get me to where I am health-wise, it would probably be far more than $200.

It looks like there's a good chance my homeward commute might get rained out. If it's cleared up, I plan on really packing on some miles today.

I want to start with the 15 mile trip home. I plan on being home before 4:45 tonight, but we'll see how that pans out. If I have to take the bus, I won't get home until a little after 5:00. Next, I'll ride to the Trek Store for the Monday night recovery ride. Getting there and back will be about 11 miles, and the ride itself is usually 8-12 miles. If all of this riding pans out, I should have about 50 miles logged today. If it rains for my trip home but clears up in time for my Monday night ride, I'll probably get about 25-35 miles today. If it rains and doesn't stop, it'll be more like 15 miles, unless I want to load the MTB up into the Explorer and drive 5 miles to the group ride. What's funny is that I HATE when people do that. Ride your bike to the group ride, for the love of all things good in the world! Alas, miles are miles. And I like miles right now. I think I might even taste a 600 mile month...

We'll see.

Cops, Dogs, and Right Hooks

There are very few stop lights that I just cannot trigger with my bike. One of them is going north on Nieman at 75th street. If Karen or Chris are there, our combined hall effect profile is significant enough to change the light. On my own? I can't ever seem to get it to change. I try every single trick I know, and I can see the under-pavement faraday loop. I can almost always trigger these. Today, again, I failed.

What I usually do is wait for oncoming traffic to trigger it from the southbound side. If no one is in the left turn lane, my light goes green. At about 6:05-6:10 in the morning, there is often enough traffic going south to get on Shawnee Mission Parkway or I-35 to trigger my light. If someone chooses the left turn lane, however, I will sit there at a red light for the rest of my days. If this happens, I begin entering the intersection, and then once all the cars have cleared their left turns, I run my red light while cross traffic still has a red. I did it again today, as usual. Then, I noticed a Shawnee police officer turn onto Nieman. He got in the left lane but didn't pass me. I was going about 30 in a 35 on a downhill and thought little of it. Then, as I climbed the next hill, I started to slip. 25 MPH. 20 MPH. 17 MPH. I stabilized at 17 or so, but the officer still wasn't passing. It was then that I knew I was probably busted for running the light. Why he insisted on following me for almost a mile and a half in the other lane at speeds varying from 10-30 MPH, I'll never know. He never once turned his lights on, got behind me, honked his horn or blipped his siren.

I eventually got tired of seeing him incessantly in my Take-A-Look. I looked right at him. He rolled down the window and said "Hey! You have to stop back there like everyone else!" I started pedalling again, and said "I Was stopped for over a minute! I can't trigger that light! Every morning, I have to wait for someone to trigger the light for me, or I'll go through after the oncoming left turns clear." He told me it's a dangerous intersection, then darted off. Traffic was coming up behind us. I guess he thought I just blasted through the red, but I was stopped. I can't hop off the bike and go to the crosswalk for every single light-controlled intersection. Is it time for me to build a MIRT?! I keek, I keed!

So, with the local yokels out of the way, I am moseying northeast on Merriam Ln when I spot a pack of 3 dogs up ahead. I don't recognize these three, but usually a pack of dogs is a harmless thing. One of them wanders out into the street, causing an oncoming pickup to come to a complete stop. The other two are sitting in the ditch on my side of the road. Tongues out, having a good old time watching their buddy attempt to do the age-old magic trick of changing himself from a dog into a pile of warm, chunky salsa with fur. This is all unfolding a quarter-to-half mile ahead of me.

The pickup goes around, and I'm coming up on the pack of dogs. The other two start crossing the street. I get within about 200 yards of them, and the same dog that had earlier tried to leave this cruel world locks onto me. I'm a pretty good judge of animal character. When a dog sees you and starts running with you and barking, you're his temporary playmate. When the dog stops in his tracks, puts his ears up and forward, then charges at you while snorting, showing teeth and roaring (rather than barking), that's usually a bad sign. Not always, but usually. When his two buddies decide to follow suit? It's time to really hammer it. So yeah, I won't need any coffee today after that little adrenaline rush. A few miles up the road, going into Rosedale, I saw one of the dogs that's in the friendly pack I usually encounter. I made kissy noises at him and he jogged on the sidewalk next to me for a little bit, then got too far from home and turned around.

On Southwest Blvd as I approached Rainbow, I had this guy in a big old Frito-Lay delivery truck (think UPS or bakery truck, not semi tractor) behind me. He had his right signal on, so I hammered on it again to try to clear the intersection before the light turned red for both of us. I got up pretty fast, but then noticed that he was moving to pass me. There's no way in hell he was going to get around me and make his intersection. I was going almost 25. The turn signal came back on though, in my rear view mirror. Then he was next to me. Grr. I got his truck number and already reported him. Have I mentioned that I love my mirror? Now that I know what behavior patterns go with right-hooking drivers, I am practically immune to them as long as I pay attention to my surroundings.

So, there you have it. I didn't get coffee this morning. Yet. I might go out a bit later once my heart rate drops from this morning's events.

Sigh...

So, I've been battling a ridiculously slow leak after patching my rear tire back on the 12th. I'm talking going from 100 PSI to 70 PSI overnight or while I'm at work. Enough to where I can pump it up before my commute and get home with the rear tire starting to get teeny bit squishy.

So yesterday, I tried to find the leak. Impossible. I had the whole tube under water at about 20 PSI (bulging) without a single bubble. It's that slow. I rolled it up and switched it out for the brand new 700x18-25mm tube that I had in my seat bag. I figure this slow leaking tube would make a great "limp it home" spare.

When I aired up the new tire, I noticed that it had a narrow area near the valve stem. I deflated it and examined it, and it looks pretty strange. I aired it up again and thought to myself that it might be okay.

Right after I made my last post, I found a really low tire. The trip to the PHP user's group meeting was the first time I'd ridden on the new tube. I definitely wasn't going to make it home. With a total of 4 CO2 cartridges and a spare (slow leaky) tube, I decided to see how far I'd get by filling the current tire up. It bought me about 20 minutes, which got me within a mile or so of home. I was losing about 2 PSI per minute, by my estimates. I had some CO2 left from that cartridge and finished it off. I decided I would go past home by about 2 miles to hit Turner Cyclery for some decent tubes. I ended up burning another cartridge on the way there. When I got there, they topped off the tire once more and told me to hurry. I was losing about 5-7 PSI per minute now, and it didn't have much left by the time I rode the 2 miles back to my apartment.

Thank goodness I bought that cheap 25 pack of cartridges, eh? Remind me to never buy 18-25mm tubes again. I bought two 28-32mm tubes for my 25mm tires. I know it sounds bad, but the one I installed tonight seems to be a perfect fit. I don't think it's any worse than the 1.75" tube that's in the 1.25" tire on the back of my hybrid. That's held solid for over 400 miles.

I put the other new tube in the seat bag, and stuffed the slow-leaking spare into the pouch I keep in my panniers that contains some extra tools and my first-aid kit.

400 miles

I've amassed 407 miles this month so far, which is a few miles past what I got in May. This is the most miles I've been able to pack on in a month's time so far. I still have 10 days to go, too. I am definitely on course to breeze past 500 miles in July.

I'm about 8 miles from home right now at the local PHP User's Group meeting, and I'm at about 1985 miles for the year. My wife and I went on another bike ride this morning after she got off work. With today's riding, I'll be about 7 miles short of ticking over 2000 miles today without sacrificing time with my wife. Family is more important than 7 miles, though.

Blog Tag. Here's my five facts!

Well, I've officially been tagged by Fritz, which means I have to give you five facts about myself. Then I get to tag 5 other bloggers. With that, here we go.

1. I am a devout Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that through him I am saved. I am not actually a member of any specific church nor do I endorse any particular "flavor" of Christianity (Catholic, Methodist, or whatnot) but I currently attend a growing church plant every Sunday and volunteer 2-4 Sundays per month to run video, sound, or lighting. I should also say that I don't believe in forcing my views on others. I don't keep it a secret, though. I will openly listen to what you believe in without criticizing you.
   
2. I am a bona-fide nerd. I actually met my wife on a dial-up Bulletin-Board System (BBS). For those of you who don't know what that is, think of it as being a little bit like Craigslist. Online and local. But not quite the Internet. I met her online in the mid 1990's. We were bored one night and decided to meet face-to-face for some coffee and to hang out. The day was January 4th, 1997 but I had a friend's birthday party to go to. We met the next day (January 5th) instead. We hung out again on the 10th, then in the wee hours of the morning on January 11th, 1997 we decided to start dating. It's been the best 10 years of my life, and I know we'll stick it through. She's my best friend, my fishing buddy, my hacker babe, and everything else.
   
3. I started taking things apart when I was about 4 years old. I've never stopped. It took me a while to learn how to put things back together. To this day, I blame Lego for this. I've replaced engines and clutches in cars and trucks. I've repaired electronics at the component level. I've re-built clockwork. My motto is "If something is broken, I can probably fix it. If something works properly, I can probably make it better, faster, or easier to use. If not, I can always break it." There is a very condensed version of this motto in my profile.
4. I, by virtue of curiosity often strive to know every minuscule detail of a given system or subject -- and by virtue of confidence and tenacity, I refuse to blindly believe in accepted or posted limitations. These traits have lent themselves well to my profession in security. I am an amateur locksmith, and I excel in many other aspects of both physical and information security including surveillance, firewalls, and social engineering. My niche right now is host system security, roles and responsibilities, security auditing, and policy enforcement.
5. I go to my parents' place every single Sunday for lunch. My dad is hands-down one of the best friends I have, and both of my parents are extremely wise, although they, like myself, can be nimrods on occasion. They're not perfect, but they put up with my bone-headed behavior while raising me. Instead of equipping me with everything I need in life, they equipped me with experiences and advice on how to get everything I need in life. While they have given me handouts when times got rough, I acknowledge that their advice and camaraderie is what really helped me along the way.

There you have it. Raw. Personal. I feel like an emo kid!

Now... Bloggers beware! You have 10 seconds to hide. But I'll find you anyways.

Tom. I'm calling you out!
Crum. You too!
Jeff, this means you.
Jason, you devious blogger, you! This has your name all over it.
Brian, I know it's an industry blog, but we want our 5 facts.

So with that, TAG! You're it!

That wasn't any faster...

I tried. I tried really hard to be faster, but all I got was a
lighter, nimbler bike. I made it in 53 minutes today, which is 2
minutes faster than Wednesday and at least 5 minutes slower than my
best time last week. The panniers stay. This is my first official
post from my phone. If it shows up wierd, I'm sorry.

Back to basics

I should have just ridden my bike today. The rain was all around noon time, but it was dry when I got to work and dry when I left. I hate taking the bus, even the express bus. I got stuck on another short bus on my way home, which had me lugging the sorrento into the bus, and holding it steady the entire trip, occupying the wheelchair space. I ended up working late, though, doing some glitch fixing. I'm not sure I would have liked trying to ride home at 5:00 PM.

So, I'm going back to basics with the Trek in the morning. My panniers are still at work. I'm leaving the laptop here at home, and taking just the bare essentials tomorrow. If nothing else, this will tell me if it's just me being slow, or if the extra encumbrance of panniers (and the stuff within them) is holding me back. All I'm taking with me is a plastic grocery sack containing my work clothes, cell phone, and access card stuff.

To pass the time at work, I took a 256MB memory stick I had laying around and threw 255.8 MB worth of music onto it that I let iTunes pick randomly out of my highest-rated tracks. I hope there's enough variety and music to keep me busy for 8 hours tomorrow. I'll just plug it into my work computer and use my headphones there.

I don't use my work PC for personal web browsing even though I could probably get away with it, so you won't likely see any further posts from me until tomorrow night. I'll be checking my comments and e-mail from my cell phone, though. ;)

Great links. Recommended reading.

I have ALWAYS loved the Bastard Operator From Hell stories. BOFH, the alter-ego of IT guy and fiction writer, Simon Travaglia, is a bitter and vengeful systems administrator. Simon's stories come straight from the trenches of IT. His adventures and exploits are obviously based on reality but slightly (and sometims overtly) sensationalized or exaggerated.

Anyone who's had to work in IT or management in a company with a structured IT department in the last few years has probably been faced with changes to the system. I'm talking about the ITIL Framework, change control/management, and all that jazz. Well, Simon's at it again, having fun with service level agreements this time in BOFH 2007 Episode 24: A question of urgency. This is worth the read, and hits close to home for me. I'd imagine anyone else that's involved in "the next big thing in IT management" will enjoy it. Unless you're one of those pointy-haired bosses that gets stuck enforcing this stuff.

Also, yesterday I saw this awesome letter to non-cyclists on RocBike.com. Even though it's almost 10 months old, it's also definitely worth the read, and it's even bike related! Imagine that!

Mmm. Rain.

They're calling for loads of rain and storms today. I'm doing the bike and bus thing with my mountain bike today. The plan is to hit the express bus a few miles away.

The good thing is that the temperatures will be all set for a really nice riding weekend, including some cooler temperatures tomorrow for the trip to work.

Headwind and potential changes

First off, what a headwind this evening! It made getting anywhere almost impossible, and reduced my entire homeward commute to a seemingly uphill battle. Cruising down the 5% grade of Baltimore on my way out of KCMO was about the only time that gravity was of any assistance to me. The rest of my trip home was into a steady 20 MPH blast out of the southwest.

Today, I brought home only my laptop bag, bungeed down to my rack. I left the panniers at work, and all the stuff inside them. I don't need most of it, anyways.

I can put everything I take to work on my bike into 3 categories. The first one is my commuting essentials. These are things I really, really, need. Some of this stuff is semi-permanently on the bike:

• Spare inner tube(s)
• Tire levers
• Inflation device of some sort

The rest, I have to carry with me in pockets or on the rack:

• Work clothes
• Apartment keys
• Cell phone
• Wallet

Then, there are the things I have with me that are good to have, but in no way necessary:

• Extra bike lock (for locking up at places like the coffee shop)
• First aid kit
• Some extra bike tools

Finally, there are the things I really, really like to have with me, but don't actually need.

• Laptop (for listening to my music, checking my personal email, etc)
• Digital Camera (For, you know, pictures)

Anyhow, I'm faced with a decision. I'm really looking to make my commute more efficient. The obvious ways are to reduce weight and/or drag. I'm battling with some ideas, but I'm not sure what will work best until I give them a try.

The most obvious weight reduction method is to keep doing what I'm doing and melt off another 30-50 pounds. At my current rate, that'll take a while.

I'm thinking I may try to use the panniers only on Monday, to lug in a week's worth of clothes to work. Bring the day's dirty clothes home strapped to the rack each night.

To solve the laptop problem, I really wish I could find a bluetooth PCMCIA (not cardBus) card for my old G3 PowerBook. I could just leave that laptop locked up at work without much worry.

I'd like to get to the point where I'm not lugging much between home and work. Does anyone else have any good suggestions?

So, I'm sitting here cooling down...

in my new awesome shirt.

I do the same routine as usual. I pull up to the coffee shop. I lean my bike against the window. I remove my helmet and gloves, and place them neatly on the rack. I douse my head with cold water, run my hands through my hair, rinse off my hands, rinse my face off, and rinse my hands again. I dig the bike lock out of the right pannier and freelock my bike, still leaning against the coffee shop window. I dig my laptop out of the left pannier, go inside, and the barista, already knowing what I want, has my drink pretty much ready to go. I pay for it, and sit down 3 feet away from my bike on the other side of the window.

I'm enjoying my morning phone call with my wife, letting her know I arrived safely, when all of a sudden, I notice this guy shuffling around the patio leading to the entrance of the building. He shuffles towards my bike, obviously admiring it. He shuffles closer and notices the lock. Then he looks it over some more. The window has these one-way shades, similar to what the windows of tents are made of, so he can't see me, but I'm getting concerned and muttering stuff to him as if he could hear me through the window. He reaches for my digital camera holster that's mounted on the handlebar. It's empty, the digi is in here with me. That's not the point, though. He starts tugging on the flap to open it. At this point, I call the guy a few choice words, again, as if he could hear me through the window. I pounded firmly on the window through the shade, and he jumped back, surprised and startled, hands back and up in the air a little bit. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't contemplating confrontation despite the fact that I'd successfully averted his attempt to do whatever it was he had planned on doing. My better judgment took over, fortunately.

Still, though. What the **** is up with people? For the record, this area is teeming with homeless people, but this is only the second time I've ever had a problem with any of them. Most of them are courteous, kind people. About half of them panhandle. The rest of them simply greet you or just ignore you while they go about their day. I guess a portion of them are greedy thieves who prey on the hard work of others to get ahead just a little bit. Those are the only ones that anger me. It's going to come back to bite them one of these days.

Anyhow, this is why I bring almost everything in off my bike that can be removed without tools when I get to the office. What can be removed without tools (and some stuff, like my saddle, rack, and bottle cages, that do require tools) gets either a cable lock or heavy chain passed through it and then locked to a bike rack.

Jeez.

A little better this evening.

Things went a little smoother this evening. First off, I had the smaller of my two water bottles in the freezer all day while I drank copious amounts of water from the larger one while working. When the time came to leave, I filled the larger bottle with as much ice as I could cram into it, and the rest with water (and a little more ice to replace what the water melted)

It was about 92 degrees in the shade upon departure, but it felt a little less humid. I focused on spinning low gears on the sections of headwind and hills that caused me problems last night. By the time I hit Rosedale, the ice was gone in my first water bottle but the water remained cool. I kept drinking small quantities frequently even though I didn't feel thirsty. By the time I hit Antioch, bottle 1 was done for, and it was time to start on bottle 2, which had a core of ice left in it, but had otherwise melted to become cool, refreshing water. It was 3/4 empty and tepid by the time I got home, some 6 miles after I'd broken it open.

I think I'm finding my groove. This heat, however, is truly a sadistic character. Its companion, the sun, is no less malicious. I haven't had to endure these conditions on a bicycle since the whimsical days of my teenage juvenescence. I am now nearly 65 pounds heavier than I was back then. I thought that some of the September afternoons were kind of warm when I first started riding my bike from the bus stop to my apartment. In retrospect, those temperatures were maybe in the low 80's.

With a slight change in attire, I managed to tackle even three-below-zero temperatures not that long ago. It involved using some moisture-wicking thermal base layers. I'll be damned if I get scared off by impending triple digit temperatures, much less the mid 90's we're experiencing this week. Yet again, it's time to give in and adapt. I picked up the closest thing to a roadie jersey that you'll probably catch me in this year. Technically it's a moisture-wicking running shirt. It's really thin, really comfortable, and really light. It also fits me like my usual t-shirts so that I don't scare people with that lycra look. Trust me. You do NOT want to see me in form-fitting lycra.

If this shirt works out for me, I'll probably pick up a few more. Just call me Roadie Noah. *sigh*

The bike commuters are out!

Not much to say this morning. It was a nice but humid ride in. I actually got some good rest last night, stayed hydrated this morning, and all that jazz. There's definitely a lot of bike commuters out this morning. Karen was riding and I saw several south-bounders as well. Just before I started my climb up Baltimore, I saw Jeff on the Soma fixie. I'm pretty sure he recognized me. Once downtown, I saw lots of people riding around. Some dressed to work. Others lugging stuff around on their bikes.

When I pulled up to Starbucks, I saw Lorin's Schwinn SuperSport leaning against the window. We hung out and talked for a bit and discussed various things from my wife's new bicycle to his own quest to pick up a steel frame road bike, such as the Surly CrossCheck.

It's already approaching the mid 70 degree range downtown. It's supposed to be in the mid 90's by the time I head out this afternoon. Remind me to load up on ice before I head home. Sheesh.

Ugh

I've been communicating with Andy, a guy who works in basically the same industry as I do. He's a road cyclist with destination and departure points that aren't too far from my own, but his usual route varies from my own quite a bit.

Today, he drove to work and rode his bike home with Chris and I. Tomorrow, he plans on riding to work and bringing his car back home. This is just one of many ways that long-distance bicycle commuters can do multi-modal transportation to reduce the amount of fuel they use, increase the amount of time they spend on a bike, or help the environment. Whatever the motivation, this Drive-bike-bike-drive kind of commuting seems to be a popular method, and it solves the problem of how to get clothes and other gear to the office safely without loading your bike or your back with cumbersome panniers or backpacks.

Andy caught some coverage of my Blog from a link off of The Trek Store of KC, and uses bike commuting to supplement his training routine - it takes the place of some of his after-work training rides.

I know for fact that tonight, I wasn't helping him get any training in. I was SLOW. I let Chris and Andy escape, and I bailed off at the earliest sign of being able to hop onto Turkey Creek Trail. The headwind, humidity and heat were the main factors that really kicked my butt. The wind was hot and humid, brickwalling me and at the same time offering little in the way of relief. Sweat poured down my face and into my eyes. Sweat poured down my chest, back, and arms, drenching my gloves, shirt and shorts. Even riding head-on into 20 mile per hour gusts, the sweat isn't evaporating to cool me off. I keep drinking and progressing. I slow it down even more once I hit the trail, so as to not overheat, and to maximize my time in the shade of tree canopies over parts of the trail.

This is just the beginning of the kind of week we're in for. I am drained of energy right now. I'm hoping for a really good night's sleep to help me recover from this. I'm drinking tons of water right now, and plan on keeping it up at work all day tomorrow as well. I'm hoping that helps.

Last night and this morning

Last night was my wife's first time on a bicycle since probably her early or mid teens. Her hiatus from bicycling has been formidably longer than mine was prior to getting started again back in September 2006.

You know what they say about riding a bicycle? Well, it's definitely true. We pulled up to Turkey Creek Trail at about 8:30 as the sun and temperatures were falling. We took the trail a little past Merriam Lane before deciding to turn around -- partially because she wanted to make sure she had enough energy to make it back, and partially because the trail would be getting pitch black as the dim, light-polluted sky filters through the canopy of tree cover. We put 3.6 miles on last night, which I think is a heck of a good run for someone who hasn't ridden more than just test rides on a bicycle in a decade and a half.

We got her bike fine-tuned along the way, and she learned how to read the hills and shift accordingly with ease. She had it going pretty good. I'm proud!

The commuter convoy this morning was the usual 3-person echelon. We took a little different route this morning, going through the Skate World parking lot in hopes of picking up someone else along the way. No dice yet. People will come around, though.

Added another bike to the family

We finally were able to go out and grab my wife's Townie 3S today. While we were at it, we picked up some accessories. I already have more than enough lighting laying around the apartment, but she needed a bike bottle cage, computer, and a trunk bag to carry her stuff. Not to mention the mandatory helmet and worthwhile gloves.

I've probably ridden it more than she has already, and it's a really fun and comfortable bike to ride. We're going to go hit the trails for some fun this evening.