BIKE: Eastwood
TIME THERE: 24 min.
TIME BACK: 25 min.
WEATHER: light rain, 12C, 7 km/hr headwinds there; overcast, 14C, 19 km/hr crosswinds back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt
NOTES:
With Mike the Bike out of commission with a broken spoke (and missing teeth in the cassette, and in desperate need of a new chain), I determined last night that I would ride Eastwood to work this morning. Even when I was up until almost 2:00 am last night, I promised myself I would still bike today. When the alarm went off at 6:30 am and I couldn't will myself to open my sandpaper eyes, the only part of my brain that seemed to be working was the one that comes up with excuses not to bike. And yet, I did it. I just mindlessly got everything together, got my daughter ready, and headed out the door. Into the rain. Where the chain promptly fell off the chainring and I had to fix it with my daughter crying beside me and my hands getting all greasy before work. I sighed. It was only 7:30 am, and it's already feeling like a loooooong day.
I had a bit a slower day, which I'm grateful for because I really didn't have the mental capacity to handle a heavy client load. Still, not being busy made the day drag even longer. When it came to quitting time, my mind started racing, looking for someone to mooch a ride from. After all, it was forecast to thunderstorm during my ride, and sure, it wasn't storming right then, but what if I got caught in it half-way home? What THEN??
Nobody came to my rescue, so I reluctantly mounted up and rode home. This old $50 used mountain bike is an infinitely more comfortable ride than Mike, but the shifters are these terrible twist mechanisms that are imprecise and kind of useless, so I spent most of the ride both there and back today trying to ride the shifters and find some gear that might work for me while I clumsily rode clickity-clankity along with the chain not fully settling into gear. GAH! I definitely am not used to this bike.
Tomorrow I'm driving to work because I'm leaving early and heading off to the airport to visit family over the long weekend. That means I'm spending this evening doing laundry and packing and getting everything organized for tomorrow - which is actually quite a feat, considering I'll be travelling as a sole adult with a toddler. I just want to have a hot shower and drop into bed right now - I'm so dead tired - but it seems that's not in the cards. I have a trip to get ready for. SIGH!
It's only 7:30 pm. What a loooooong day.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Week 38 - Day Three: Mechanical Failure
BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 27 min.
TIME BACK: n/a
WEATHER: a few clouds, 17C, no wind there; cloudy, 17C, 20 km/hr winds later in the day.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, zip-up hoodie
NOTES:
One thing I noticed this morning was the dense moisture in the air after a hot summery day yesterday culminated in a thunderstorm last night. The lightning and rain moved on, but this morning it left in its wake the oppressive humidity that felt like a very mild version of Toronto summers. It brought me back to those days, running to catch a bus, slogging through a day of work, doing my grocery shopping in air that was sometimes so thick with moisture it felt like I couldn't breathe. Water would cling to my skin and make me feel sweaty even moments after drying off after a shower. There was something about that heat that I truly loved - the perpetual feeling of a warm hug, for instance - and there were other parts that weren't so charming - like always being sticky with sweat and moisture so I could never really feel clean.
Another thing I noticed this morning was the clankity-clank emanating from my back tire. I've heard this on and off for a few days, but I checked my spokes a little while ago and nothing was broken, and there seemed to be no other reason for that noise. Today it got especially loud and persistent, so I pulled over (hence the long ride into work this morning) and tried to figure out what was the matter. One of the spokes was broken and bent, clanking against the frame of the bike with every rotation of the wheel. I tried to unscrew it from the tire, but I couldn't get it to budge, so I did my best to tuck the bent spoke into place so it wouldn't clankity-clank the whole way there, and I figured I'd just have to fix it later.
After work, I ended up getting a ride home from a friend with my broken bike shoved inelegantly into her trunk. I figured it was probably bad news that I'd already ridden most of the way to work with a broken spoke, so for the structural integrity of the rim I should avoid riding on it again until it's fixed. So I got to be lazy! Which isn't so bad, especially considering that it was spitting rain here and there at the time we headed home. Still, it got me thinking: I'm going to have to make a decision about the fate of this bike. Should I fix the spoke, along with the broken teeth on the freewheel and get a new chain (all things I've needed to do for some time)? Or, should I ride Eastwood for now as I shop for a new bike, given that I was planning on getting a new and better bike at the end of the summer?
Hmm . . . decisions, decisions . . .
TIME THERE: 27 min.
TIME BACK: n/a
WEATHER: a few clouds, 17C, no wind there; cloudy, 17C, 20 km/hr winds later in the day.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, zip-up hoodie
NOTES:
One thing I noticed this morning was the dense moisture in the air after a hot summery day yesterday culminated in a thunderstorm last night. The lightning and rain moved on, but this morning it left in its wake the oppressive humidity that felt like a very mild version of Toronto summers. It brought me back to those days, running to catch a bus, slogging through a day of work, doing my grocery shopping in air that was sometimes so thick with moisture it felt like I couldn't breathe. Water would cling to my skin and make me feel sweaty even moments after drying off after a shower. There was something about that heat that I truly loved - the perpetual feeling of a warm hug, for instance - and there were other parts that weren't so charming - like always being sticky with sweat and moisture so I could never really feel clean.
Another thing I noticed this morning was the clankity-clank emanating from my back tire. I've heard this on and off for a few days, but I checked my spokes a little while ago and nothing was broken, and there seemed to be no other reason for that noise. Today it got especially loud and persistent, so I pulled over (hence the long ride into work this morning) and tried to figure out what was the matter. One of the spokes was broken and bent, clanking against the frame of the bike with every rotation of the wheel. I tried to unscrew it from the tire, but I couldn't get it to budge, so I did my best to tuck the bent spoke into place so it wouldn't clankity-clank the whole way there, and I figured I'd just have to fix it later.
After work, I ended up getting a ride home from a friend with my broken bike shoved inelegantly into her trunk. I figured it was probably bad news that I'd already ridden most of the way to work with a broken spoke, so for the structural integrity of the rim I should avoid riding on it again until it's fixed. So I got to be lazy! Which isn't so bad, especially considering that it was spitting rain here and there at the time we headed home. Still, it got me thinking: I'm going to have to make a decision about the fate of this bike. Should I fix the spoke, along with the broken teeth on the freewheel and get a new chain (all things I've needed to do for some time)? Or, should I ride Eastwood for now as I shop for a new bike, given that I was planning on getting a new and better bike at the end of the summer?
Hmm . . . decisions, decisions . . .
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Week 38 - Day Two: Bad Day, Happy Ending
BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 24 min.
TIME BACK: 27 min.
WEATHER: clear, 17C, 15 km/hr headwinds there; clear, 30C, 30 km/hr cross/tailwinds back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, tank top, zip-up hoodie (hoodie in panniers on the way home)
NOTES:
Biking to work today, I was about half-way there when someone barreled past me on a mountain bike. At first I tried pedaling faster to try to catch him, but he was going so much faster than me that even when I stepped up the pace the distance between us grew and grew, and I had to give up. Damnit! I hate being beaten! Later on, as I rode onto campus and got closer to my building, a woman riding without a helmet rode past me on a hybrid bike, overtaking me just before I reached my destination. This one pissed me off. Come on! You don't even have a helmet! You're not supposed to be able to ride faster than me if you're not even serious enough to wear a helmet!
Argh!! I've been pissed off all day. My competitive spirit ruined my ride this morning, then someone I know seriously disappointed me, then two clients in a row canceled on me, I had a frustrating final session at the end of the day, and I had a windy ride home during which I thought I might be tossed off my bike by the crosswind as I was traversing the High Level Bridge. Today just hasn't been going my way.
Luckily, by the time I got home things settled down. My daughter was being adorable and sweet, she ate most of her dinner, she played with me, and even had a bath without any kind of fight or tantrum. While we were playing around upstairs after her bath, she even let me know when she was tired: "Bedtime, mommy?" I put her to bed with a toy and a book, and she's been sitting quietly in her crib ever since.
Sometimes my daughter makes my day!
TIME THERE: 24 min.
TIME BACK: 27 min.
WEATHER: clear, 17C, 15 km/hr headwinds there; clear, 30C, 30 km/hr cross/tailwinds back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, tank top, zip-up hoodie (hoodie in panniers on the way home)
NOTES:
Biking to work today, I was about half-way there when someone barreled past me on a mountain bike. At first I tried pedaling faster to try to catch him, but he was going so much faster than me that even when I stepped up the pace the distance between us grew and grew, and I had to give up. Damnit! I hate being beaten! Later on, as I rode onto campus and got closer to my building, a woman riding without a helmet rode past me on a hybrid bike, overtaking me just before I reached my destination. This one pissed me off. Come on! You don't even have a helmet! You're not supposed to be able to ride faster than me if you're not even serious enough to wear a helmet!
Argh!! I've been pissed off all day. My competitive spirit ruined my ride this morning, then someone I know seriously disappointed me, then two clients in a row canceled on me, I had a frustrating final session at the end of the day, and I had a windy ride home during which I thought I might be tossed off my bike by the crosswind as I was traversing the High Level Bridge. Today just hasn't been going my way.
Luckily, by the time I got home things settled down. My daughter was being adorable and sweet, she ate most of her dinner, she played with me, and even had a bath without any kind of fight or tantrum. While we were playing around upstairs after her bath, she even let me know when she was tired: "Bedtime, mommy?" I put her to bed with a toy and a book, and she's been sitting quietly in her crib ever since.
Sometimes my daughter makes my day!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Week 38 - Day One: Blisters
BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 25 min.
TIME BACK: 26 min.
WEATHER: clear, 15C, 11 km/hr tailwinds there; a few clouds, 26C, 9 km/hr crosswinds back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, tank top, zip-up hoodie (hoodie in panniers on the way home)
NOTES:
Oh, Mondays. Back to work, the daily grind, waking up to the sound of the alarm and never really getting as much sleep as I really need. It helps to wake up and know that I'll have a nice bike ride into work, especially with the weather as nice as it's been lately: by the time I mounted up this morning, the temperature was already in the mid-teens and there was hardly any hint of wind. It helps to feel the sun on my skin and get my body working first thing in the morning. It helps me to shake off the residual laziness of the weekend.
Actually, I wasn't lazy this weekend - not at all. I ended up doing at least a couple hours of yard work each day, trying to work around my daughter as she played on her new slide in the backyard ("Mommy, watch, mommy, watch, watch, mooooommmy - SLIDE!"). I was weeding and planting and digging and hauling, mowing and watering and playing with my daughter in the sprinkler - at least until she realized she was wet and cold and started crying. It was nice to stay active over the weekend while at the same time being able to rest my thighs - those large and ever-growing muscles in my legs that get so tired by the end of a biking week. It means that I was able to continue burning calories over the weekend, then get back on my bike this morning without my legs protesting. It was pretty nice.
The downside to all that gardening is the blisters. I have blisters on each thumb that are perfectly aligned so that they have full contact with the grips on my handlebars and end up stinging for the whole ride. Awesome. I tried repositioning my hand in different ways, but nothing allowed me a comfortable amount of control without the damn blisters getting in the way. Ahh, well, I've fallen off the bike and had to get back on to complete the ride, even when an entire side of my body was bruised - I'm sure I can handle a little blister or two.
TIME THERE: 25 min.
TIME BACK: 26 min.
WEATHER: clear, 15C, 11 km/hr tailwinds there; a few clouds, 26C, 9 km/hr crosswinds back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, tank top, zip-up hoodie (hoodie in panniers on the way home)
NOTES:
Oh, Mondays. Back to work, the daily grind, waking up to the sound of the alarm and never really getting as much sleep as I really need. It helps to wake up and know that I'll have a nice bike ride into work, especially with the weather as nice as it's been lately: by the time I mounted up this morning, the temperature was already in the mid-teens and there was hardly any hint of wind. It helps to feel the sun on my skin and get my body working first thing in the morning. It helps me to shake off the residual laziness of the weekend.
Actually, I wasn't lazy this weekend - not at all. I ended up doing at least a couple hours of yard work each day, trying to work around my daughter as she played on her new slide in the backyard ("Mommy, watch, mommy, watch, watch, mooooommmy - SLIDE!"). I was weeding and planting and digging and hauling, mowing and watering and playing with my daughter in the sprinkler - at least until she realized she was wet and cold and started crying. It was nice to stay active over the weekend while at the same time being able to rest my thighs - those large and ever-growing muscles in my legs that get so tired by the end of a biking week. It means that I was able to continue burning calories over the weekend, then get back on my bike this morning without my legs protesting. It was pretty nice.
The downside to all that gardening is the blisters. I have blisters on each thumb that are perfectly aligned so that they have full contact with the grips on my handlebars and end up stinging for the whole ride. Awesome. I tried repositioning my hand in different ways, but nothing allowed me a comfortable amount of control without the damn blisters getting in the way. Ahh, well, I've fallen off the bike and had to get back on to complete the ride, even when an entire side of my body was bruised - I'm sure I can handle a little blister or two.
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