Little segment from the pre-history days of mountain biking. I’ve never seen this bit of journalism before, but there are a number of recognizable characters in the footage -
Enjoy!
As I’ve mentioned before, any month with a decent ride in it will look good. So, June ended up OK, even with some non-cycling weekends and some schedule-shifting. The best news of the month was that I rode the San Francisco Randonneurs “Populaire” - which is something of a low-mileage (for brevets, anyway…) route designed to introduce new riders to the quirks and procedures of route sheets, controls and brevet cards. I took a few photos, but scratched the writeup, as I crossed paths with JimG a mile or two into the ride and we spent most of the route catching up and each apologizing to the other for a perceived lack of fitness. It was a great, grand, reinvigorating ride for me, but it just didn’t translate too well into the written word.
Yoga was sparse this past month - I had signed up for a high-value voiceover workshop that directly conflicted for four weeks - the workshop was great, challenging and helpful for my career, but you can’t be in two places at once. Well, at this juncture in the space-time continuim anyway.
So - 20 riding days for 369 miles
5 yoga sessions (snuck in a Saturday session instead of a ride).
Bikey Miles So Far This Year - 1755
April was a fun exercise in forced efforts. Though, when I’m jumping on the bike at 11 o’clock at night to spin a 3 mile loop around the neighborhood so I can state that “I rode today”, the forced part resonates a bit more loudly. Which is not an indictment, mind you. A bit more of a description.
In fact, I’m a big fan of repetition and limitation. Glimpsing perfection within the form. Certainly, forms abound. From the idea of chopping wood and carrying water, to the sun salutation, to the grinding out of 200 kilometes in 13.5 hours (or, since this is a Paris-Brest-Paris year, 1200 km in 90 hours), once you agree to the Form, there’s no arguing with it. Within that, there is a certain amount of liberation, which in turn allows supreme focus upon a goal.
Limitation? Wow, that can be a touchy subject. With technology continuing to connect and compound itself, the last thing anyone wants to hear is anything about Limitation. My bias is that when everything is possible and the possibilities are limitless, that causes the most teeth-jarring stop of anything approaching creativity. We become aggregators rather than artists. Choosing the Limits, or agreeing to those Limits, forces creativity to spark.
Kind of big subjects for what was to be a simple and quick post with some numbers. Chalk it up to strong coffee and the burgeoning warmth of June…
20 (organic) bike rides
8 yoga sessions
321 Bike Miles
Bikey Miles So Far in 2011 - 1386
April went well. (But, here we are a week into May before I’m writing about it…)
Spurred on by a mention by the always upbeat and inspiring Harry Hugel, and a mention or two from cycling icon Kent Peterson, I poached the 30DaysOfBiking Challenge and decided to ride every day in April. The distance per ride was immaterial, according to the guidelines of the ride, and I had to slip under the rope because I tried to sign up on April 1st - after doing my first ride - but the site would not let me join.
So, I said “screw it” and decided to do it anyway. Tagged a tweet with #30daysofbiking and voila! it showed up in the stream on the 30 Days of Biking site.
Ended up going 30 for 30, one day at a time, with only a few 11 pm neighborhood loops in the mix. There were a couple of times when my legs just wanted to shut up and go home, but I either tricked them with the fixed gear (they just had to follow the pedals) or the promise of lower gearing and coastability (”No, really. You can rest whenever you want!”)
By month end, it just seemed like the normal thing to do. Made me realize that it was probably the longest string of riding I’ve ever managed. It’s always very easy to opt out for the day - working remotely, or having too many things to do. But, even with all that, throwing the leg over the frame and heading out - whether under the stars and through the nighttime breezes, or greeting the rising sun - put that perfect note into the sometimes overwhelming cacophony of the day. There were some days when I really needed it, too.
The tally was helped, and maybe this year can be propped up into the 5K realm after what I knew was going to be a challenging start. Nevertheless, I’ve learned again that one ride, right now is what matters.
April Bikey Mileage - 467 miles 30 Days for 30 (and reading ahead, went 5 for 5 in May.)
Only manged 6 yoga sessions - instructor was out one week.
2011 Mileage So Far - 1065
Some days, I’m very happy for a coastable drivetrain and a multitude of gears. I knew Monday would be bad, but even yesterday, my legs ached and bitched most of the way to work and back. All because of the phone call I got on Sunday.
“Hey! Where are you?”
It was a trick question really. It was my wife. And there was really only one reason the question was being posed - because I was not where I should have been.
Y’see, cycling is one of those things which tends to dislodge me from linear time. During brevets, there have been hours of purgatory which only took a couple of minutes. Minutes of tricky, technical descents which took merely seconds.
What tricked me is that the usual direction is towards expansion. Like yoga, acting or meditation, you seem to find the time within the seconds to observe, ponder and react. You see the way a hawk tweaks its tail before changing direction, how a bee scrambles to stay attached to the fabric of your jersey before releasing and disappearing aft. There have been distinct moments when my front wheel slid out on loose trails, and somehow I sat back, looked up, picked up the front of my bike, lofted the front wheel and brought everything back upright. A quick flick of the second hand that took minutes.
Occasionally though, it works the other way.
“uhh….heading home?”
“We need to leave in about thirty minutes.”
Now, that couldn’t be right, thought I. Somehow, I’d lost an hour out on the breezy, sunny Sunday right. I’d swooped the trails and hummed over the roadways. I’d enjoyed a double espresso while watching sailboats navigate the Racoon Straits. There had been plenty o’ time to spare the whole day.
But, as Peter Sellers once observed, “Nit Anymere…”
From where I was, still climbing the tail end of Camino Alto, it was a 45 minute ride to get home, via the MDR*.
“I’ll be there in about 30.”
Rolled up the gear on the Quickbeam, used every trick I knew and made every light except one. And just to toot my own horn, I rolled up to the porch 31 minutes later. Showered like there was water rationing and was dressed and ready in record time. I wasn’t particularly popular for a while, but we did arrive on time, at least. Though I think it might have taken another hour before my heart rate dropped back down. Really hadn’t planned on Beryl Burtoning my way home, and things were stiffening up as we sat through the play that evening.
Monday’s commute? Well, as I mentioned, tiny gears and seated, easy pedaling. Goddess, I was sore.
And yesterday? Hit the first climb and my ox-brain let me shift up and come out of the saddle.
Uh. No. That h’ain’t a-gonna work. Big gear, meet burning thighs. Eased up and sat down, finding a gear that worked a bit better. But clunky with a capital “K”… Yoga helped last night, so we’ll see how things are today.
*MDR = “Most Direct Route”
Curious danged thing… I seem to be poaching a ride that didn’t cost any money, doesn’t offer any t-shirts, waterbottles, commemorative tchotchkys, low-rez/ill-lighted photos with an annoying watermark posted to a website or even an official rest stop. Couldn’t be happier.
I think the first place I noticed it was via perennially pleased Harry H, who can reliably be found at RBWHQ&L on Saturdays. He of the alliterative moniker had mentioned something about the “April Challenge” over at 30DaysOfBiking.com. 30 Rides in 30 Days. Hashtag it on your twitter feed. Any distance counted - the idea was just to get up, get out and ride. Sounded like fun, but was attached to the interwebs by the historic computer, so decided to remember to sign up when I was using the newer appliance.
Which of course I promptly forgot until reading Kent P’s post, at which point it was April 1st. And the 30DaysOfBiking site no longer allowed people to sign up. Which kind of sucked. I mean, I could see cutting it off at midnight on April 1st, since if you hadn’t ridden by then, you really couldn’t do the program. But, I had and was just trying to join the gang to celebrate spring, riding, feeling good and life.
Well, mostly, I’m just trying to do small, insignificant things in a methodical and steady manner, trusting in momentum. But, I think that’s a bigger thought than I can address right now.
Anyway, the good news is that the 30DaysOfBiking site seems to be scooping up the #30daysofbiking tag regardless of whether you have signed up. Which means that my sub-parenthetical utterings are dropping into the stream. Which means I’m poaching the ride…
A dismal success?
I don’t know, that’s what it felt like this past month. Dismal in the beginning, successful towards the end. As mentioned last month, I knew that Jan/Feb were going to be impossible for free time and energy. Mentally ready for a slowish start to the year, the nasty flu/infection kind of blindsided me. In the last week of February, it felt like a cold coming on, then just rooted itself into my brain and ate all of my energy. A solid three weeks of no extra energy and certainly no riding.
And the weather helped by remained cold and rainy for most of it. Which I guess is not as bad as looking out the window at gorgeous riding conditions. But, to paraphrase my old rowing coach, “…cycling is an outdoor sport” and since most of my bikes are rigged appropriately for changing conditions, it’s really hard to say that there’s “riding weather”. There’s glorious and easy days out in the sun and there’s hard and challenging days which make for great stories. But I digress…
The first week riding, I was pretty wiped out after four easyish commutes, and opted for naps and recovery on the weekend., and then, with the first day of spring, strung together a consistent run except for one day when I needed to be behind the mic in the middle of the day. The second half of the month I rode 14 days out of 18, managed to get back to my yoga classes and in general came back to life. And just to show how much Nature appreciated that, she even deigned to bring the sun out with Monday’s ride.
By the end of the week, I engaged in two rides whilst wearing shorts. While shocking and unsettling to any onlookers who may have observed the pallor of my gams, it nonetheless felt grand.
March Mileage - 184
2011 Bikey Miles - 598
Rolled out to work yesterday on the Dawes. First time in three weeks, in what has shaped up to be a pretty spotty year so far, mileage-wise. It’s been riding in more or less two week chunks. First couple o’ weeks this year were steady if unspectacular, but then I got immersed in an off-site work project (that I knew was looming) for a solid 2 weeks. That meant that January Mileage got hung at 165 miles
February was a bit more regular - nothing huge (longest ride was 44 miles on the Quickbeam). But illness went ripping through the workplace and I could feel things heading south towards the end of the month. It came on like a slow cold, but ended up being a nastier bug which just wouldn’t leave. Couldn’t even muster up the energy to go to yoga, and the idea of riding seemed like a cruel joke. (And of course, we enjoyed some ridiculously fine weekends in there…) February Mileage was 249 with dwindling returns as the month wound down.
And that has more or less kept me in the cycling doldrums until yesterday, when it seemed right to roll out again. The Dawes seemed the right ride as it was geared a little lower than the Quickbeam, and the Hilsen (for some reason of deferred maintenance or attention) has not had the fenders remounted on it for some time now. To my surprise, the commute went easily, and my legs seemed to actually appreciate being called upon once again. (Nothing like crampy, why-the-hell-don’t-you-take-us-riding? night legs while you are trying to sleep while coughing with a sinus infection…).
Lastly, it’s very hard to even begin to complain about all of this while reading and watching what is unfolding in Japan. I’ll ride in again slowly this morning, thinking about the power and intensity of the tide surging into the San Francisco Bay - an ocean away from the epicenter - how tenuous our grasp always is on this planet, on our very important but infinitesimal existence, how we so often manage to create problems for ourselves with such far-reaching effects, how we allow discussions to devolve into petty squabbles which do nothing other than confuse the issues.
I hope I’ll think about those things and find a core of resilience. The simple act of turning the pedals seems to simplify things, remind me that great distances can be covered with seemingly small but steady efforts. We’ll see how it goes today.
Hard to go wrong with that combo. 
Even better when you can make an afternoon of it. More info yonder on the Soulcraft blog.
Now, the only problem I can see with this event is that “A Ruota Libera” means “Freewheel” in Italian. Hopefully, they won’t be checking drivetrains carefully, and I can sneak in with my Quickbeam in fixed mode…
The iBob List is dead! Long Live the iBob List!
“This is the last email to the internet-bob@bikelist.org mailing list. The list has moved to internet-bob@googlegroups.com.
To continue recieving list emails you will need to join the new group. You can do that by going to one of these two links:
http://yojimg.net/bike/ibob/join.php
OR
http://groups.google.com/group/internet-bob
It’s been a good decade of hosting this list, and I’ve been very happy to be the list admin and host during that time.
For
the next couple of weeks sending email to the old list will get you an
automatic reply with instructions on joining the new list. After that it
will cease to operate.
thanks,
Alex Wetmore“
Big thanks to Alex for wrangling this roadshow for so long, doing it so well and handling a myriad of interesting and often highly opinionated characters so adroitly. And thanks to ride-buddy JimG for stepping up to manage the list now.
Guess I’ll have to update this page-
http://cyclofiend.com/ibob/
Rework is one of three books I read this past year which keep significantly resonating in my brain. (Well, there’s probably more than three now that I think about it, but ideas in Rework, plus Program or Be Programmed and The War Of Art seem to keep interlocking and reinforcing one another, and as such become more of a troika…)
The folks who penned Rework run 37Signals, which as near as I can tell, is a significantly creative, focused and intelligent company in the sense of “appropriate structure.”* The person who tipped me to the book Rework was Grant Petersen, who (as y’all prolly know) formed Rivendell Bicycle Works after Bridgestone Bicycles USA shut down operations.
It’s roundly fitting that the folks at 37Signals would take a moment to sit down with Grant and interview him. It’s a fine interview, and he may be still answering reader questions at the end of the article.
Go read it:
Bootstrapped, Profitable & Proud
*remind me to do a blog post about “appropriate structure” sometime, or dig around the vinyl bins and find a copy of “Let the Power Fall” by Robert Fripp and read the back. Or, here. (Though that person attributes it to Robert Fripp directly, my recollection was that he had transcribed it from elsewhere. Since I sold that vinyl a while ago, it looks like a lunchtime trip to the used record shop is in order…)
Update:
A kindly lurking blog reader passed along this link to the Fripp album mentioned above.
http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=734711
I’d reckon that if you are interested in bicycles and spend much time knocking around the interwebbs (named, of course, after Jack Webb), you’ve run across Kent Peterson. If not, it’s high time you did. Even in the clamor of daily life, someone who decides to do the Great Divide Race on a singlespeed stands out. If that was all he did, he’d be noticeable. But, it isn’t.
Kent manages to write with a deceptive simplicity which elegantly nudges at complex problems and issues. He writes about cycling, but seems to manage to reliably cover much larger topics.
Sunday’s writing is an excellent example:
Enjoy!
Mirroring this post from the good folks over at Box Dog Bikes -
“A friend of
mine that works for the Bay Citizen came by the shop yesterday. He said
they’re putting together a map that shows where all the bike accidents
are happening in San Francisco. It will have a ton of data like what
are the causes, and what kinds of vehicles were involved when it
happened. Unfortunately its based mostly on police reports, which
probably don’t reflect how many crashes there are in the city. They are
launching this application on Monday and are trying to get some people
to submit their unreported accidents before then. Please follow the link below to report yours.”
From the Bay Citizen:
“The Bay Citizen is asking bikers in San Francisco to submit
data about bike collisions they’ve experienced in the past in the Bay
Area. We’re building a new data application that displays collision
data in San Francisco on an in-depth interactive map, to help people
understand what’s happening on the streets and where more safety
measures are needed. We’re using data from SFPD, but we know many
accidents are never reported to the police. If you were in an accident
but never reported it, please take a couple minutes to fill out this short form
and let us know where, when and how it happened. We will add your data
to this project, and we really appreciate your contribution!”
Gorgeous footage of Sean Walling building one up in Petaluma.
FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft from michael evans on Vimeo.
Viva La Soulcraft!
In the cold of Bay Area January, the rides begin - the San Francisco Randonneurs 2011 brevet schedule is online at: http://sfrandonneurs.org/home.htm
I’ve been a member for a few years now, and have nicked the “Lighthouse 200″ three times. (It’s listed ast the “Point Reyes 200K” on the schedule below. (Reports) It’s a grand ride, and remains a excitement-causing/daunting challenge when I consider it. Unfortunately, a current work project which began in earnest during December has prevented the mileage necessary to consider it, so I won’t be toeing the line when the 2011 season fires up on January 22nd.
As this is a PBP year, folks will be coming out of the woodwork to qualify, so if you’ve been thinking about giving this odd and challenging discipline a try, you should get on it for this ride. The Lighthouse 200K is the only SFR ride which imposes a rider
limit (due to NPS rules) and while it isn’t full yet, it more than likely will fill up
before the date.
Registration can be done online or via paper/mail: http://sfrandonneurs.org/registration.htm
The calendar below is just the start. We are in the planning
stages to add four more events for 2011, two of which will be at the
100km Populaire distance - a great way to get a sense of how brevets run over a shorter course (Proposed Populaire dates under discussion are in late
June and in October. Check the SFR website soon for exact dates.)
2011 Schedule
| Distance | Date | Start Time | Time Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Point Reyes 200k | Sat, 01/22/2011 | 7:00 AM | 13.5 hours |
| 2 Rock/Valley Ford 200k | Sat, 02/12/2011 | 7:00 AM | 13.5 hours |
| Russian River 300k | Sat, 02/26/2011 | 6:00 AM | 20 hours |
| Healdsburg/Hopland 400k | Sat, 04/09/2011 | 6:00 AM | 27 hours |
| Fleche (360k +) | Thu, 04/21/2011 * | 8:00 AM | 24 hours |
| Ft. Bragg 600k | Sat, 05/07/2011 | 6:00 AM | 40 hours |
| Davis Night 200k | Sat, 06/04/2011 | 8:00 PM | 13.5 hours |
| TBA 200k | Sat, 08/06/2011 | 7:00 AM | 13.5 hours |
| Winters 200k | Sat, 10/08/2011 | 7:00 AM | 13.5 hours |
December went out like a jellyfish. Busier than heck with one work project (which will be continuing through this month), some nice VO bookings and rain/recouping on the weekends kept the December (oh yeah! December…. there were some holiday things in there, too.) ride total to precisely 100 miles.
Not specifically complaining, as it has been a pretty good and steady run this past year, without the severe dips caused by overdoing things and then having to pay the price, healthwise. One curious anomaly was that I actually attended up attending more yoga classes in December than getting rides.
Another curious bit of statistical coincidence was that I rode 185 days out of the 365 last year and hit exactly the same number of rides in 2010.
So -
December bikey miles - 100
2010 Total Bike Mileage - 3,868
I’m fine with that total. Didn’t get hit this year. Didn’t stress at not hitting the 4K mark (a semi-goal for the year). Down a bit from the 4,131 last year, but considering the increase in time demands, quite within reason.
One thing that has occurred to me is what a gift it is to be able to easily and regularly commute by bicycle. My current work project has me running about 35 miles one way to where I need to be - a rideable distance, but a big logistical change from my normal distance. I may have to go back to “going for a ride” before or after. It’s been a while since I had to do that, and the habits, steps and momentum needed to get kitted up and out the door are a bit rusty. Something to work on in the new (well, current) year.
Managed to miss the Grand Opening of the Cal Park Tunnel, but did get to ride through it yesterday.
1100 feet of crisp and clean tunnel retrofit yummyness.
More video -
North End Access
Southern Terminus
Posted by: The Cyclofiend @ 11:48 am
Decent mileage finally. Nothing wow-inducing, certainly. Just a nice solid month with regular rides. The thing I was most happy with was notching 319 with minimal longer rides. The longest loop was around 45 miles mid-month. On the downside, that means that I haven’t ridden “long” in a while - hmmm…. quite a while… - but it means that I ended up riding 21 days out of 30. Consistency is a good thing.
It hurt a bit, too. A little stiffer here and there and a few muscle aches. Regular riding puts a bit different stress on the system, and I’m still screaming home on the commute at a pretty good clip most nights. (That whole shorter ride/higher effort thing.) I’m feeling better when I do have to go for more throttle. But, then one weekend of marginal weather, I just couldn’t raise the gumption to go a-ridin’. Had to honor that, too. Yoga still keeping things loose and restored.
Also wore my last Pasela down to the threads - which I only realized by flatting while on a lunchtime errand. Danged fenders tend to obscure the visual check. But, I do like wearing stuff out.
Bikey Miles in 2010 so far: 3768
This put the biggest smile on my face* -
*For some reason, this video is a little wonky in Firefox, so if you don’t see anything, try this link -
http://www.youtube.com/user/
A lot of little threads and thoughts today. Some of which will probably be edited out in the interests of coherency.
Got a decent ride in yesterday, after weeks and weeks of too-short, too-fast commute rides. Rolled out on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday - the kind of mid-November SF Bay Area weather which we who live here get very quiet about as our cycling brothers and sisters are discussing winter gloves and studded tires. First ride in memory where I didn’t have my bag strapped to my back, and things felt light and smooth. Steered the Quickbeam over road and trail, enjoyed a freshly paved section of Paradise Drive, felt cosmically blessed when the surface turned back to bumpy and cracked and ripply, and all the race-folks fell behind on their high pressure 23C tires.
As a general rule, it seems to cause some consternation when a single-geared bicycle with tweed fender flaps goes past them over a rough and broken surface. Perhaps it’s the head-slap enlightenment. Just one of the many services we offer.
Just realized that I didn’t make a mileage post for the meager October tally. (tap, tap, tappity, tap) There.
Or rather here.
Finally upgraded my phone (the Razr that wouldn’t die), which means that I spent a couple evenings dinking around at the app store, up too late distracted by mostly less-than-useful technology. Was reasonably impressed by Pandora radio, which immediately knew about a couple of less-than-popular bands that I thought of. Only downside with them is the commercials. But, hey, nothing is “free”… Other than that there have been a few things, but I think I’m going to keep things reasonably austere for a while. (Maybe some folks will make some suggestions - so far the Photoshop, Sketchbook, Hipstamatic, StarWalk, Dragon Dictation and Evernote apps are all aboard and being used. Oh, and RedLaser, which is pretty much the end of retail as we know it. The one time waster I’ve allowed myself is Labyrinth.) None of which has to do with cycling.
For the past 30 days or so, rides have been of a different flavor. Busy times at the day job, more auditions now that I’ve got representation for voiceover work, and a few gigs have had me trying to compress more stuff into less time, and I often end up blasting home on the commute - curiously enough, often in time to get to yoga. Which must be some sort of a zen koan.
The whole practice of screaming homeward on a tallish, non-coastable gear seems to be paying off. On yesterday’s loop, there was a little lapse at about an hour, I suspect as that’s been the upper end of most of my rides of late, but then things started to notch into place. My legs and hips decided that they weren’t going anywhere, and decided to help out for a bit longer, and the back and arms started to relax and act like springs rather than shock absorbers. And when I felt like ratcheting up the pressure a bit, it actually felt like there was some latent speed in there. I don’t think I’m ready for the BASPS this year, but at least things aren’t feeling entirely monovelocic.
It’s also the time of year when everything suddenly gets darker an hour earlier. Which isn’t all that bad, as it takes my home commute out of the time of dusk, when people don’t seem to see anything and places it squarely in the night, when bright LED’s and USCG-approved reflective tape seems to catch their eyes. Indeed - the worst event riding recently was coming back from a noontime sandwich run, in broad, bright daylight, when someone entering from a side street decided they didn’t need to stop at the sign and tried to slide through it. Luckily my “HEY” horn seems to have appropriate volume and “cut through”…
Speaking of unaware drivers, I finally got a check from the insurance company to settle up property damage and expenses from the accident last June. It was a lesson in polite and helpful responses leading to no actual results, and a steadily stream of “oh, you know, we don’t have a copy of …. ” which had me re-faxing, re-emailing, and re-requesting medical clearances. For those of you keeping score at home, that was 15 months from the day of the accident. Just to clarify, this was the driver’s insurance company who redefined methodical slowness - my auto insurance was spot on, helpful, going to bat for me and quick to point out what I should do (get copies of police report, photograph damages, etc.). CSAA really rocked, and this year was one of the few times that I re-upped with them that I was actually happy about it. Of course, I’ve been with for freakin’ ever. But, in this day of online comparative pricing, and racing to the cheapest possible solution, I do wonder what the response would have been if I’d changed companies annually.
And, I am still of the opinion that it’s not a good idea to arrest the forward motion of a bicycle by sticking your index finger between your brake lever and a truck door. Just in case there’s any question about that.
Finally, I’m looking forward to today’s ride - we’re getting together with some friends who have a very energetic son who has been itching to go bike riding with us. Certainly, H.G. Wells observed
“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”
…but it’s always great to remind the next generation.
Seemed like a meager bit o’ mileage this month of October, but there were a lot of other things going on.
First of all, in the non-bicycling world (unless you want to hire me to voice your cycling film, ad or cartoon…) of voiceover, I’m officially represented by Stars Agency, San Francisco. This is a good thing, and already led to a couple of video game jobs during the month. But, back to mileage.
14 rides, but reasonably clumped, so it felt like a fair bit of downtime. September was the lowest month this year at 223 miles, with some healthy gaps when I wasn’t quite 100% and work had me running around a bit. October pulled us out of the dive, with a total of 252 miles. (And this month - since I’m actually making this post in nearly mid-November - has gone well, with 11 rides for the first 13 days and mileage around 180). Through it all, I’ve managed to stay consistent with yoga, which has helped noticeably.
Been back on the Quickbeam almost exclusively (though the Zeus came out for some shorter commute days) - don’t know why precisely, other than the wondrous simplicity of jumping on and riding, and the push that it seems to give back when on a hill or upon reaching a certain speed on the flats. Something nice about a simple system.
Anyway, so as not to belabor the point -
Bikey Miles so far this year - 3449
Ran an errand after leaving work, which positioned me nicely for looping home in an indirect manner. Heading eastward against a slight headwind, the true intent of the season became clear. It’s fall. Sure, it’s SF Bay Area fall and we’re not exactly knocking frost off the pumpkins, but it felt like this would be the last commute of the season with uncovered knees, and two thin layers of wool under a wind vest were just keeping me warm enough if I didn’t stop.
Folks stuck in cars began to turn their headlights on. Even if the sun wasn’t precisely below the horizon, it had at least dipped beneath the western clouds enough that the last rays only caught the highest hills. I’d replaced the batteries in my running lights the night before, and had some more serious illumination mounted and ready to roll. Even with leaving work a bit earlier than normal, safety demanded a quick pressing of the fore and aft buttons, and I became significantly easier to see. But, it was still in that wonderful period of early dusk, with colors growing gray and a glow from the sky.
Pedaled and stretched away the drumming cadence of a kind of crazy day. Began to pick up more of a tailwind and stretched out to a couple of ticks above 20 mph, starting to feel easy and a bit smooth. Even with the exertion, the cooling evening pushed through my sleeves a bit.
Up the hill and into the curves. The breeze buffeted a bit, swirling in that way it does as seasons change, when it hasn’t yet settled into storm or calm mode. A young two point buck appeared in the road before me, then trotted dead center in the oncoming lane as a car followed at an appropriate distance. As I looked back over my shoulder, the deer spotted a path and leapt up the hill.
On the bay below me, it was low tide and as I looked back, the beauty of the rising moon just stopped me.
I slowed and pulled off the road to enjoy it for a bit. Out of the winds, and with no breeze pushing past my ears, it suddenly was silent. It didn’t seem that even the crickets had kicked into gear yet. I could hear my own slowing breath and watched a few birds working the edge of the mudflats.
One of those timeless moments.
The chill pressed in again and spurred me back onto the bike. But, that moment now traveled along with me. Another of the reasons I ride.