The Bike Computer

WEATHER THERE: overcast, 6C, 11 km/hr headwind

WEATHER BACK: overcast, 11C, 11 km/hr tailwind



If you've been reading my blog since last year, you may have noticed that the format has changed a little bit. I no longer keep my faithful readers abreast of how long my ride to and from work takes me, or what I wore, or even what bike I rode. I figured that a lot of that information was either unnecessary or redundant, given that if the information was pertinent it would come up in my blog entry anyway. As for the timing, I've made a very conscious decision not to time myself this year. Inspired by the casual pleasure-riding a former colleague at my internship did, and finding that I was getting too competitive with myself about how fast I could make the journey, I decided it might be best to relax and treat my commutes like less of a chore or a competition and more of a casual pleasure ride.



So, no more timing! I have a computer on my bike that is tracking how many kilometres I traverse, how much time I log on the bike, top speed, average speed, things like that. I'll be curious to see how many kilometres and how much time I've logged at the end of the year! I think my total time is already somewhere around 3 hours, between a couple bike-commutes and a weekend ride with my daughter in the trailer. Sometimes I reference the computer as I'm riding to see how fast I'm going up a hill (so far, it's usually around 13-15 km/hr), or what speed I'm at when I'm cruising along a flat stretch of road (usually between 19-22 km/hr), but I'm trying not to focus on it too much. As long as I get to work on time and I'm enjoying myself, that's all that really matters. Or, well, at least that's what I'm trying to tell myself . . .