Cycling

#30DaysofBiking Day 22

I guess the best thing about day 22 was that there was nothing unusual about day 22.  It was the first day in awhile were I just rode to work and back.  The headwind on the way home was a bit strong, but it wasn’t too bad.  Little did I know what the next day had in store for me.

#30DaysofBiking Day 23

I thought it was supposed to be spring.  It’s not supposed to be near freezing with drizzle and harsh northerly winds.   Thankfully, I haven’t put my cold weather gear away, but I sure wish I could.  The ride to work was painfully slow with one point where the wind almost pushed me backwards.  However, it was still a nice ride, and as always, after about the first 5 minutes, I got warmed up and it wasn’t too uncomfortable.  I just hope I can quit wearing all of this gear regularly soon . . .

Still haven’t been able to get back completely into the regular posting schedule, but thankfully I’ve been able to keep riding!

#30DaysofBiking Day 19: Just Another Day at Work

I continue to get most of my cycling through my daily commute to work.  The big change I’ve made is to start riding more and more in my work clothes instead of always wearing a change.  My short ride is only 6.5 miles and, at least during the spring, if I take it easy I can arrive at work, refreshed but not horribly sweaty.  I think we cyclists can often make our rides too complicated and think we need more gear and kit

After a very long and tiring week, I’m finally getting a chance to catch up on my #30DaysofBiking posting.

#30DaysofBiking Day 13 - Failure

And then I have to start with a failure on my 30 day goal. As I’ve long been reporting, I have toiled away on the replacing of a sewer line. While it has been a great learning experience, a fantastic workout and the source of innumerable Cool Hand Luke jokes, it was also drug on much longer than I would have hoped or dreamed. Saturday was hopefully going to be my last day of moving dirt and finally this long project could start becoming a distant memory.

It was great to be back at work, even though there is much upon which to catch up. I was too tired last night to get all of my stuff ready for my commute back to work, and to top it all off, I slept in a bit too late this morning. No time to find all my ride clothes, pack my lunch, check the air pressure, etc. etc. So instead I did something most unusual, I just hopped on my bike in my work clothes and just rode to work. The temp was about 40 degrees which allowed me to pedal at a decent pace and still arrive to work fresh and happy. It’s an important thing for me to remember that I don’t need to over think my ride to work. Of course, in July when it’s 90 degrees at 6 am, it’s a slightly different story.

We started our little sewer line project with a good amount of enthusiasm thought with a certain amount of trepidation. While progress has been pretty constant, it has for the last couple of days, seemed like the project might never reach an end. While we didn’t finish it today, the project is truly getting close to completion. The first big hurdle was to get the new line laid, which actually went extremely smoothly.

As mentioned before, my father Mark and I, with maybe more enthusiasm than sense, have taken on the daunting task of doing a sewer line replacement on our own and without heavy earth moving equipment. Progress has been good, at least until today, but I must admit that, I was not nearly in good enough shape to have taken this project on. I have been going home absolutely exhausted and sleeping much like the dead. However, I have been keeping up with my #30DaysofBiking, but only just barely. By barely, I mean that with stubborn tenacity, I have been forcing myself to ride up the block and back for the world’s shortest of rides. ;) But, I remain committed to the project, even if I am taking a loophole to stay in the ride.

I’m a little behind on posting, but thankfully, I’ve been able to keep riding. Friday was a fantastic day of riding with beautiful weather for both rides. I’m hoping that I can get a longer ride during the week sometime soon, but it won’t be for a while. For most of the next week, I’m going to be doing home repairs on Grace’s house as we get it ready for sale.

Today was a day of changing cycling fortunes.  After two days of soaking, cold rains, today was the first chance for me to dry out.  This morning started off pretty cold, but without a falling rain, it was still a great improvement.  That said, after the earlier cold, wet rides and a lack of sleep, I didn’t have any energy for the ride and I kind of drug myself into work.

When I started OKC Bicyclist in 2008, on-line communities for Oklahoma City cyclists were pretty much non-existent. There were a few mailing lists, but there was no consistent source for area cycling news including both events and advocacy. Since then, much has changed both in the local cycling community and with the ways and means to collect and distribute news. We’ve seen both large advocacy groups such as the Oklahoma Bicycling Coalition and personal advocacy efforts such as Susan Lash’s All For the Love of Bikes dramatically expand their on-line outreach. In my own small way as the VP of the Oklahoma Bicycle Society, I have tried to expand their blogging and on-line outreach as well. And then there is the technology explosion of Twitter and Facebook which has completely changed how to distribute interesting news and links. At this point, the idea of a link blog such as OKC Bicyclist is a bit of an anachronism and has become a burden for me to maintain.

OK, today wasn’t a wonderful cycling day. The temps were lower, the rain was more intense and the novelty of riding in cold rain had worn off.  Even my impervious gloves were drenched through by the time I got to work. Thankfully, I have improvised a little glove and balaclava dryer out of my desk fan: