Back in it, sorta

Email exchange with my wife today went something like this:

Her: Lunch?

Me: I biked in, so you'd have to pick me up

Her: Nevermind...time constraints. PS - Let me know if I need to pick you up [meaning after work]

Of course I declined...

So as you might have guessed, I resumed my bike commute today. Last time I rode to work was August 27, and I explained what happened in my last post. I briefly thought about reverting to my old drive half/bike half commute for today. I decided against that partly because I thought I could deal with the 30 mile round trip, and partly just because I'm lazy and loading the bike into the car was something I didn't want to deal with. So that was that.

It felt great to be out there riding again. The morning was cool & foggy. The fog was probably not ideal as far as visibility goes (cars seeing me, that is), but I was thankful it wasn't hot. I made a conscious effort not to push myself and I'd even managed to leave with enough extra time so I could take a slower pace and not worry about being late to work.

I only packed a few apple slices to snack on once I got to work and a turkey sandwich for lunch. My legs started to feel tired as the day wore on and by the afternoon I was getting really hungry for a snack. I kept hydrated hoping that would quell some of the hunger. I was looking forward to the ride home, though.

Anyway, 5:00 pm hit and I was on my way. I was expecting it to be clear, sunny & warm for the ride home but the clouds were making their way in. As usual Kearny Villa Rd had a headwind ready for me as I headed north, but otherwise the conditions were like the morning so I couldn't really complain.

I hit the first climb and I could tell I'd lost some strength after not riding for awhile. I wouldn't say it was a painful climb but I was going painfully slow, geared down (unfortunately) as low as I could go. I thought about stopping at the shopping center atop the hill (there's a Starbucks there after all) but kept at it. The next part of the hill wasn't bad, but again I just kept it slow & steady. A right turn to crest up to the peak of the road traversing the north side of Black Mountain and I was nearly home free. I only had about 2 miles to go. From there it is a longish downhill, but unfortunately one more climb to reach home. As I crawled up the crest my quads were starting to burn, then cramp a little. I thought again about the email, the chance for a ride home. I thought about the last hill and possibly hurting myself again. I thought of not being able to ride for another month.

I pulled over and called home. I'll be back again soon enough.

Just when I thought

Just when I thought I was getting stronger on hills, a guy passes me on the last climb on my way home like I was standing still. I know it's all relative. He was on a nice titanium Moots bike and here's me on my 25 lb steel cross-muter with a backpack to boot. Oh well. I was happy to ride past a long backup of cars that had spilled over to the side streets because of heavy traffic on the freeway this morning. That's what I get for gloating.

Bike Commutes #16 to 21, in review

The last Bike Commute I really blogged about was #15, I think. Bike Commute #16 was pretty routine, at least I can't remember a thing about it now. I managed to jam Bike Commutes # 17 - 20 all in one week.

During spring break, the elementary school was closed. My mom came down to watch the kids for the week, so we didn't have to take any days off of work. I drove in to work on Monday that week, like usual. Tuesday we decided I would leave a car for my mom & the kids to use and I would carpool with my wife part way and then she would drop me off and I would bike to work. This would be a longer bike commute than normal, but I was up for the challenge.

 

Ride to Nowhere in Particular

We went to Disneyland on President's Day. I rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride twice with my son. You know, it's the journey to "nowhere in particular." Tuesday I took an additional day off to spend with the family since the kids are off all week and my wife's staying at home with them. But in the morning I made sure to get a bike ride in...to nowhere in particular.

Actually, I knew where I was going. There's a loop to do near my house of about 11.5 miles. I start in 4S Ranch, go through Del Sur and Santaluz and back around to 4S Ranch.  I am working my way up to longer bike rides. This is less than the mileage I do on a round trip bike commute, but it is the longest single, non-bike commute I have done so far, I think.

The route alternates downhill and uphill sections with few flats to be had. I thought it would also be good training for the Black Mountain 15k trail run I signed up for in March. I want to preview the course before the actual race. The question is whether I should run it or do it by bike. Maybe both.

Get on the Bike

It's been over a week since I last rode my bike. I have been trying to designate Wednesdays to be my official "bike commute" day. I needed to stay home this past Wednessday so I missed my opportunity. Riding once a week sounds like a realistic goal, but there always seems to be something that comes up, legitimate or not.  I had ridden two weeks in a row (I think a first for me), until this week, that is.

I'd been thinking that maybe I should change the tag line of my blog from "Developing a bike commute habit" to "The diary of an aspiring bike commuter" or "21 and more excuses not to ride" or "The sometimes bike commuter" or "How to blog about bike commuting without really riding." Please suggest others in comments if you've got any good ones I can use.

It can be tough finding time to ride when you're trying to balance family and work and whatever else. I've been thinking I should bring my bike in on days I don't ride to work and take some lunch rides. We'll see if that ever happens... Even if I can't ride to work, I think I just need to find a way to get out on the bike a little more and log some miles.

So, having said that I snuck out for a quick ride as the sun was setting this Saturday afternoon. I've been wanting to tackle this hill nearby my house. It is probably not much of a climb for most cyclists, but I figured it would be a bit of a litmus test to gauge my current riding fitness. The main climb is about 1.7 miles and about 330 feet in elevation. That's a 3.6% overall grade - like I said, probably nothing to a lot of people. I don't really know.

I've seen plenty of people climb this road. Several of those people, by appearances, were in much worse physical shape than I. I figured that I could probably make it up OK on my mountain bike with the luxury of spinning the granny gear on the front triple crank (of course I never tried), but since I got my new bike I've been a bit worried about my gear range on the low end. I've got a 50-11 combo on the high end and a 34-28 combo on the low end, which my co-worker kindly pointed out is a wider range on both ends than what his more traditional cyclocross 48/36 double crankset gives him.

As Miley Cyrus says, "It's all about the climb." (Hey, I've got a young daughter who incessantly watches the Disney Channel.) It turns out the climb was not so bad after all. It is broken into two sections with a nice flat in the middle that afforded me the chance to catch my breath. I was still straining a bit at the crest, but I was doing everything to stay out of that bottom combo, for nothing more than the illusion that I've got some minor semblance of strength in my legs.

Here's the route plotted with elevation. The ride took me about 38 minutes and covered over 8.6 miles. I hit about 34 mph on the way down the hill. I also made a few poor choices in the way I handled the bike on the road in relation to cars on the way home. (Incidentally, I'm currently listening to the audio version of Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic.) I'll be more careful in the future.