Day 4

[chargirlgenius]

Tomorrow is bike to work day, so I rode in today! There’s a chance of thunderstorms today, but this morning was just cloudy and cool, so I made the trek anyway. It’s really just day 3.5, as the last time I rode in Jeff picked me up in the afternoon. If it’s storming this afternoon, that’s what we’ll do again.

Jeff was out of town last week (even aside from the rain) and he had off site meetings the first part of this week so I had to pick up the boys. I’m hoping that in the next couple of weeks I’ll be able to ride almost every day, so I have more energy for all of that walking in Belgium.

There are a couple of local people that bike in all of the time. One of them works in my building and he is BAD ASS. He rides, every day, rain, shine, or snow. During the last snowstorm, I followed his bike tracks into the office. This morning I turned onto the main road just a few hundred yards ahead of him. I stayed ahead for a bit, as I blasted down the hill, but going up the other side, he breezed right by me as if we were on flat. He wasn’t the least out of breath as he greeted me with a cheery “good morning!”

I’m in awe.


I know that as I do this more I’ll get stronger and it’ll get easier, but four rides doesn’t cut it! I have to start somewhere, but there’s no reason in the world why I can’t do that. Soon, this ride will seem like nothing at all.

I do need want a new bike. I’d have made it up that hill a little easier if my gears hadn’t kept slipping. My chain slipped right off of the gears twice this morning – luckily I was able to get them back on by shifting and didn’t have to stop. The shifters slip gears all of the time, though. I’ll go up or down what I think is one gear, and it moves twice. I lose a lot of momentum trying to get it fixed or moving back into the appropriate gear.

Tomorrow, a bunch of people from the office are going to ride in. I’m sure they’ll leave me in the dust, but whatever. I’m not proud. We’re all going to meet in Indian Head at the official pit stop, get our free t-shirts, and ride into Stump Neck. One guy is just doing it in the morning (a few people are riding over in a truck with the bikes in the back). I’ll ride the 10 miles in from IH, then home 7 miles in the afternoon.

If it’s raining? I haven’t decided yet.

I was just about to post, but I remembered one thing that’s a bit weird. Once I get in to the office, I’m just not hungry. I eat a few bites of something before I leave the house, but certainly not a full breakfast. But now, it’s almost ten, and I just haven’t felt like eating yet. I remember the mornings on RAGBRAI (ride across Iowa), I’d usually get a good 20 miles in before stopping at some farm for a pancake breakfast.

Comments

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

Let's see....assuming I were in shape (other than round), that my bicycle were in operable condition, that there were actual bike lanes or people here willing to respect the road rights of cyclists, it is about 25 miles each way to work for me (by Interstate).... I don't think I'll be cycling *anywhere* for a while. 8^)

However, good on ya'!

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

That's the ironic thing. As you know, I'm very pro-walkable neighborhoods and all of that. I live in the boonies where we have to drive pretty much everywhere. But I *do* live within a bikeable distance to work. Granted, it's about the only place that I *can* bike. Town and the grocery stores are too far away, and even the road to the general store 2 miles away is too dangerous for me to think about riding on.

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

When I was a teenager, it was nothing to hop on the 10-speed and cycle a couple of miles to the rural "convenience" store for candy and/or baseball cards every once in a while.

When I was at CMU, I made the weekly walk down Forbes Ave to downtown with my friends to go to the comic shop or just to get away from campus for a while.

When in grad school, I tried to bike into school at least once a week (I usually got up too late to be able to do that), and did 12-25 mile long rides with the local cycling club each week.

I got out of the habit when I started working full-time. Which goes a long way towards explaining why my shape is more round than it used to be....8^)