Week 34 - Day Four: Windy City

BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 24 min.
TIME BACK: 29 min. (damn headwinds!)
WEATHER: A few clouds, 10C, 22 km/hr wind there; clear, 10C, 35 km/hr wind gusting to 50 km/hr back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt
NOTES:

I am not a fan of the wind. First of all, I have to say that ONE DAY after writing about expecting to be able to bike faster than people without helmets, I was passed by two helmet-less cyclists on the way home today! Perhaps I simply wasn't as aerodynamic as these fit-looking young men were, and biking into the wind ranks up there with biking uphill in the category of things-I'm-not-good-at, so I should have taken some consolation in that. Regardless, my ego was just a little bruised by that. At least I had a friendly conversation with one of them when I caught up with him at a red light, which helped to heal my little ego bruise because it turned out he was a nice guy. Nevertheless, I've never loved being beaten by anyone, even gracious people.

Second of all, my fair city took it upon itself to save some money on snow plowing this year by plowing less and sanding more. This has left massive amounts of sand piled up along the sides of roads, directly where cyclists usually bike. Some of this sand is deep enough to make my tires lose traction, so for the most part I try to avoid it. However, when the wind is gusting up to 50 km/hr directly into my face, it's hard to avoid the sand that gets blown up and tossed violently into my eyes and mouth. Since we're past the freezing cold temperatures now, I've put away the ski goggles that protected my fragile eyes from freezing solid during my winter-biking days, but maybe I'll just have to break them out again to protect me from the hazards of sand storms!

Ahhh, well, the good news is that as much as I didn't exactly enjoy the ride home today, and I had to work harder over a longer period of time to go the same distance, by the time I got home it didn't feel like that big a deal. Yeah, it took longer, and yeah, I swallowed some sand, and yeah, my thighs hurt like a used hooker, but really it was just what I had to do to get home. No big deal. And at the very least it was one hell of a workout: using the equation I've mentioned before that every 5 mph of headwind is equivalent to biking up ~1% grade of hill, I was biking up the equivalent of 4.35% to 6.2% hill grade the whole way home!

Regardless of the bright side: here's just hoping that the next ride won't be so damn windy.

Week 34 - Day Three: Expectations

BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 25 min.
TIME BACK: 25 min.
WEATHER: clear, 12C, 19km/hr wind there; a few clouds, 24C, 20 km/hr winds gusting to 36 km/hr.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, tank top, zip-up hoodie
NOTES:

I think when people see me on my bike they automatically have low expectations. I'm overweight, I dress in comfortable casual clothes, I have a cheap Canadian Tire bike. Sometimes at stop lights, fellow cyclists will ride up beside me, not to converse but to avoid being stuck behind me, assuming that I'll be slow. But then the light will turn green, and I will peel out of the intersection and very quickly overtake that person who was afraid of getting caught behind a slow-poke. Oh, the power of expectations, and the thrill of exceeding them!

I have my own expectations about my relative biking prowess. I expect to ride faster than anyone riding on the sidewalk, because if they're riding on the sidewalk they're probably either children or casual cyclists. I expect to ride faster than anyone on a cruiser, because those bikes are built for beauty and comfort rather than speed - not to mention, the people who would buy their bikes for beauty and comfort probably don't ride for speed either. I expect to ride faster than anyone without a helmet, because surely if you're any kind of serious cyclist you'd be wearing a damn helmet! And I expect to ride faster than people who are more overweight than me, and/or sporting grey hair - UNLESS they meet the criteria of people I expect to ride faster than me, as set out below.

The people I expect to ride faster than me include: anyone riding a bike with drop handlebars, anyone wearing a cycling jersey or cycling jacket, anyone sporting at least one article of clothing made of spandex, and anyone who has mastered the art of the track stand. If people who fit any of these criteria pass me, I am happy to let them by and I don't feel a shred of remorse about it. However, if an obese elderly person on a cruiser riding on the sidewalk managed to overtake me, that would cause great injury to my self-esteem and cycling pride. And it would be deserved.

Someone I should be able to ride faster than:

From http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/3451204901/

Week 34 - Day Two: Not Remotely Unpleasant

BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 24 min. (yippee, it wasn't a fluke!!)
TIME BACK: 25 min.
WEATHER: partly cloudy, 12C, 15 km/hr wind there; partly cloudy, 23C, 39 km/hr
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, tank top, zip-up hoodie
NOTES:

Biking in the fresh air with the sun beating down on me, a spring breeze keeping me cool, wearing just a tank top and a zip-up hoodie so I can feel the wind and the sun on the exposed parts of my skin, making good time and going as fast as my stubby little legs will allow me . . . aaaaaaaah. Yep, it's official. There is absolutely nothing remotely unpleasant about this.

Until the ride home, with the 40 km/hr wind gusting over 50 km/hr. Thank God it was a cross-wind!!! Because if I had to bike directly into that, I would be much less happy a camper! Here's hoping tomorrow isn't quite so windy, and that I can hold onto this awesome love of biking for at least one more day.

Week 34 - Day One: Breaking the Record

BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 24 min.
TIME BACK: 27 min.
WEATHER: clear, 11C, 11km/hr wind there; partly cloudy, 22C, 26 km/hr wind back (gusting up to 35 km/hr).
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, tank top, zip-up sweater
NOTES:

Boo yeah!!! I managed to make AWESOME time today: for the first time since starting this bike-commuting challenge in September, I broke my 25-minute record! This feat is even more of an accomplishment because I'm biking from farther away - from my daughter's daycare, rather than my home - which adds 0.7 km (8.75%) to my commute. Yay, me!!

Another thing that felt good this morning is that for the first time since January I've actually felt like I'm losing some weight. It's nothing dramatic, but I just feel like I've finally worked my way through the plateau I've been at for the last couple of months and I'm starting to get back into shrink mode. It's encouraging! Yay, me!!

ALSO - that paper for which I sacrificed my bike-commuting to write in March was finalized and sent off to the editors for consideration on Sunday. After weeks of working on it in fits and spurts, it's finally edited and polished up and submitted for publication. Yay, me!!

Everything is just so damn peachy.