First ride of 2013

Greetings, Internet people!

It's a new year and I'm trying to get off to a good start. I made my first bike commute of the year last Friday, my first ride since October. Yay!

Speaking of that last ride, it did not go so well. This happened:

Yep, my pedal broke off. The thread was completely stripped, so it couldn't even be fixed. I had to catch a ride home for me and my bike.

This time around, it was very cold! I was struggling with the cold and some fatigue about halfway to work when I saw this:

What a great omen. I made it to work in one piece. So did my bike.

The afternoon ride home was warmer. At first. As I got closer to home, the sun started to fade away...

I made my last big descent, which opened up to the valley, and just like that, the cold hit again! I rode without gloves to that point, but I had to stop and re-don my gloves to finish up the ride.

All in all, it was good to bike commute again. I had some muscle soreness for a few days, but I can't wait until I can ride again.

 

Missing. Inaction.

These two words certainly describe both this blog and my bike commuting as of late.

If you're curious I'll offer up a brief explanation. In August we spent both a week in Chicago and a week in Lake Tahoe. My bike came with to Tahoe and I rode it only a little (I'll get around to finishing that post eventually).

Upon returning to non-vacation mode I rode to work the very next Friday. I ended up sustaining a strained calf injury that morning, though I didn't fully realize this until the next day. This wouldn't have been so bad had I not been training for my first half-marathon, which was conveniently a week away. I know. I was potentially screwed.

I sought treatment at a sports chiropractor for the week leading up to the race and was able to complete the race within my previously estimated time, despite the injury.

So that was all well and good, but I've been taking it easy on my road back to recovery. I've taken a couple short rides and was considering riding to work this week, but then rain happened.

Anyway, hopefully I will ride in at least once next week.

Record time

OK, yesterday (Wednesday July 14) was only the third day doing my round-trip bike commute from home. As I mentioned before I was excited to find I could do the one-way ride in just over an hour. Since this is barely more time than the drive & bike routine was taking, it was more than enough justification to just ride all the way.

The weather was warm and I was feeling good. I made it in just under an hour. According to my CatEye bike computer, at least.




The CatEye pauses the time when the bike is not moving (like at traffic lights) so it's still a valid time in most respects. Total elapsed time from my iPhone RunMeter app is below. Cutting 3 minutes seems tough, but we'll see if I can break 60 minutes elapsed door to door. That will be my next milestone.

A Car-Free Commute

I had a great opportunity for an extra bike commute since my wife had days off on both ends of the July 4 weekend. Since I didn't have to deal with getting kids ready, I decided to get out early and take another shot at riding to work the full distance from home. Totally car-free.

Up to this point, I had cycled from home on two previous occasions. The first was one of my first bike commutes ever about a year ago. I took a roundabout route to try to avoid some hills and it took me two hours to get to work. I proceeded to get a ride home from one of my coworkers. The second time was this year's Bike to Work Day. I rode all the way from home, but, again, didn't do the round trip because I got a ride home in order to get to my daughter's dance recital that evening.

Well, this time I had no excuses not to complete the round trip. During BTWD I did the trip in about an hour and a half or so, including three pit stops. I figured I should make decent time. How good I wasn't quite sure. It currently takes me about 25 minutes to bike my normal ~6 mile route, but including the drive portion, it typically takes me probably about 50 minutes to an hour door to door, depending on traffic, etc. My route this day ended up being 15.4 miles and I got to work in about 65 minutes. I was a little bit surprised the time differential was that small. Vehicular traffic congestion is no longer a worry. Certainly a plus.

I repeated the home to work round trip again this past Wednesday (during a drizzly, wet July San Diego morning, no less).  I think my multi-modal drive & bike commute days are over. When I started thinking about bike commuting, I thought a completely car-free bike commute was probably out of my reach. I guess I proved myself wrong. Looking forward to doing it again this week!

Stop and Smell the Flowers

This is what I should have done today. Or at the very least, stopped to take a picture.

I was riding on my way home this Wednesday afternoon and glanced to the side of the road expecting to see the dry brush that is typical of this area I ride through or just some weeds. Instead I was greeted with some bright mats of color: yellow, purple, red. I noticed what appeared to be some smaller variety of sunflower that seemed oddly out of place (small in flower diameter, that is, though the stalks were tall). I thought about stopping and turning back to get a picture with my iPhone, but kept going. The further I got the more I lamented not stopping. I sought out more of the sunflower-y plants I saw, but there were no more to be seen.

Hopefully the flowers will still be there the next time I ride by that spot, and then I will stop and take a couple snaps.

Keep on keepin' on

It's been awhile since I've posted. Not that I haven't been riding. I have faithfully kept up with my once weekly bike commute. That's right. Not a typo. One whole time a week. Wow. I know.

Some semi-non-sequitur thoughts from today's bike commute: 

We "officially" started the 2010 season of the Bike Commute Mileage Challenge. We being my alter ego "Obi-Juan Kenobi" and my challenger, known only as "Cyclo-Cross." In the pre-season that ran in the closing months of 2009 the results were pretty much a wash. Since getting my new bike I have rejuvenated my commitment to my commuting pursuit. My opponent, on the other hand, has been confronted with some obstacles that have hindered his ability (or is it willingness?) to make the ride in to work. Thus the tally currently stands at 18-4 in my favor. 18 "points" equals 9 rides for me. For my personal goal all told, I'm at bike commute #15.

I was fortunate to catch most of the traffic lights on my ride in to work. I set a new commute time PR.

Today I got a few waves from passing riders. I've noticed much more friendliness from other cyclists in the past few weeks. Very encouraging. I also caught up to another rider at a traffic light on the way home. We actually even chatted it up for a minute. The guy was really nice and he was also a part-time bike commuter.

If you read my last post, you know I took a bit of a spill several weeks ago. My helmet saved me from a good knock on my noggin and I walked away with only minor scrapes on my hand and knee. I thought my helmet came away relatively unscathed as well, but I just discovered that the shell does have a crack.  Even though I've been riding with it for a few weeks now and have no plans on hitting my head again, it's better to be safe than sorry, so I've ordered a new helmet.

Bumps, Backpacks, and Headlamps

With the stormy weather out of the way I rode my bike to work on my regularly scheduled Wednesday this week. This was officially Bike Commute #8, but is there any point to continue counting? Maybe, maybe not, but I guess I will anyway.

It was sunny but being winter, it was still cold by San Diego standards. I layered a long sleeve merino wool tee under another long sleeve shirt. I wore a beanie under my helmet to keep the wind off my ears, but still wore shorts. Gloves, of course. It was a lovely day for a ride and I had excellent luck with regards to catching green lights at the intersections. I only had 2 minutes of stop time versus cycling time: 22 minutes by bike computer and 24 minutes total run time by wrist watch. That might be a personal best time, I think.

I aired up my tires to 70 psi and it felt like the bumps on Kearny Villa Road were more noticeable. That or the condition of the bike lane was worsened by the recent rains. I'm not sure what pressure I had been running on my previous commutes, but I'll have to experiment with tire pressure a bit more.

Instead of the Timbuk2 messenger bag I've been riding with the past couple rides, I opted to try out my old Boblbee hard shell backpack. I've never ridden with the bag before, but the aerodynamic design certainly lends itself toward cycling. I used this backpack extensively during grad school and it was always comfortable because of the integrated lumbar support, especially with heavier loads. The stability of the backpack was welcomed after experiencing shifting with the Timbuk2 bag the past couple rides. In defense of the Timbuk2 I had not been using the stabilizing waist strap (I seem to have misplaced it), so I suppose I shouldn't blame the bag for moving around. One issue with the backpack was that there was no ideal way to clip an extra blinky light. The Timbuk2 has an integrated clip specifically for this purpose, plus built-in reflector tabs. I managed to clip my extra blinky to the backpack's top grab handle, but it flopped around occasionally.

I have a Princeton Tec Yukon light that I haven't really used much because I didn't want to fuss with mounting its external battery pack. It came with a helmet mount, so I decided to try it out for the evening ride after work to supplement my handlebar-mounted Planet Bike Blaze. My backpack has a little pocket on the top flap. I was able to stow the battery pack there, though I didn't take much care to pack in the extra length of wire. When I initially set off the wire flopped around. I somehow got it to behave for most of the ride. Next time I'll have to stow the wire more carefully or use zip ties to manage the extra length. It didn't get too dark that I noticed much benefit from having the helmet-mounted light. Towards the end, I was able to look down and check my progress on my cycle computer, which is not back lit. It was nice to have light that moved with my eyes versus being fixed on the handle bars.

Rain vs. Storm

While it is not raining yet, this afternoon promises to be pretty serious if I am to believe the forecasts. I was down to ride in rain, but rain + high winds + road debris = maybe not a good day to start riding in the rain. I did see a fair amount of fallen branches on the roads yesterday and that could be treacherous for a bicycle. Yes, I have a CX bike but I'm not ready to dismount and jump over stuff in the road. I'll wait to ride a "regular" rain day when it's not so stormy. I now hear there's a possibility of hail?!?