Recently in bicycling Category

today was a good day

unplanned
a great time to get out of
a rut

instead of the standard commute
adventure

instead of hard work
respite from it
thanks to a silly decision
frustration over wasted work can be vented
another day

started the day early
driving my little car to the dealer
to get a badly designed sunshade
replaced

to the dealer's surprise
my bike emerged from the car
'oh he's got his own ride'

and off i rode for a bit

to the train
or more to the point
to north station to see my train
pull away

but that's okay
if i did that trip every morning
it would probably crap on my day a bit
but this is different for me
a novelty
a treat
even
more than being stuck in my car
i'm out
in the world
with homeless weirdos in the train station
i'm riding my bike through the city at sunrise
i'm talking with other humans
and not simply swearing at
john mccain and sarah palin's voices
on the radio

i'm actually getting better at the office's
new brand of ping-pong

i made it from maynard to somerville in 1:20
on the way back
on a beautiful afternoon

and my car was all done
and washed too

i'm in a damn good mood

depending on whose definition you read
the climb up mount wachusett
[at least from where i started]
could be considered as much as a
category 3 climb

which is pretty cool
watching the tour de france i had this insatiable
urge
to figure out what those climbs were like

and to see if i could do it
[on a 95-degree day 'cause i'm an idiot]

now i know what it's like
and i just need to do it twice as fast
and in the middle of a 100-mile day

oh and my bike fits in my smart

well, now i’ve gone and done it. i signed up for this year’s pmc, heading all the way to provincetown, no less. it’s not that the distance was daunting to me in past years, it’s the fundraising, and never more so than this year. the commitment for any saturday ride was $3k. it’s laudable that the fundraising total goes up every year, but it feels to me as a rider that they’re so hell-bent on driving up that number that they’re driving people like me out of the ride. on the other hand, it grows bigger every year, too, straining the capacity of the roads themselves, so obviously they’re not driving enough people away. i feel for a variety of reasons this might wind up being one of the last times i get to do it, so i figured if that’s the case, i will certainly go out with a bang, and go and try to raise the extra money to get all the way to p-town.

on the upside, i discovered that doing laps up and down the stairs at the clock tower is a pretty decent substitute for riding if it’s too cold out. on the other hand, i’m extremely sore after that and a soccer game last night, it’s nearly 60 today, so maybe i should’ve gone for a ride after all. soon, princess, soon.

i’m not really sure what to think of this. on the one hand, it’s yet another egregious assault on privacy/civil liberties, what have you, but on the other hand, they are protecting us from more emo.

riding soze’s little bike race out in albany tonight. although i may hurt my time, constantly checking my iphone to keep an eye on the sox. i will, however, be wearing my lucky shirt.

there was an interesting article in this morning's globe about mayor menino's newfound love of bicycling, and his intention to make boston less hostile towards bikes. this would, hypothetically, include bike lanes, more bike racks with security cameras to watch over them, and public showers to cleanse the road grime off before heading into the office. i'm somewhat torn about this, since my reason to ride into the city is usually for fun, and as a result, i rather like the combative nature of it. i'd miss that if it were easy. on the other hand, bicycling is absolutely the best and fastest way to get around town, and more people would do it if it seemed a little less perilous. people in boston are already used to the idea that a car isn't always going to get them where they need to go the best, and already open to the idea of walking. a middle-ground solution on two wheels might really have a chance to catch on.

i rode 56 miles yesterday. not for any real reason, i just needed to get on my bike and clear my head some, so i just pointed the handlebars west and pedaled like a motherfucker. interestingly, while climbing hills makes your quads burn like crazy, they're never what i feel the next day; for me it's always the shoulders that are worst, too much time hunched over with stiff arms transmitting every rut, pothole, and patch directly to where it hurts. but it was still awesome, so wonderful and cool, so many smoothly rolling hills, so few cars, what with people all watching the football game, i imagine. i found a few new satisfying climbs to sate my urge to mutter profanities while turning over a stupidly high gear going up them. i broke the speed limit, doing 37 in a 35. usually i don't get out again after the pmc (there's still time to donate, dear reader!) , for a variety of reasons, but this year i was dying to go ride again for some reason. getting my room put together, finally, which is to say there's now a more respectable pile of clothes on the floor. at some point i will get pictures hung, crossing my fingers on a curtain-rod-wire solution from ikea. speaking of ikea, i've been taking pictures in stores surreptitiously with my iphone lately, because it's interesting. stores don't like it when you photograph stuff, say some coworkers who've been nearly thrown out for doing so. i was struck, after going to costco friday night and then ikea saturday morning, by the difference between the two. they're both hell-bent on efficiency, but the former focuses on excess, offers scant choice between generally poorly-designed products, and treats you like a valued criminal, whereas the other feeds you on the cheap, makes sure you're comfortable, and makes it obvious that they'd prefer the relationship be mutually beneficial and pleasant. and fucking costco no longer carries gatorade mix. Also, here's an awesome picture of dan from last weekend:

there are innumerable small pleasures involved in riding my bike through the city of boston. it's hard to build up large distances inside of 128, but i feel that the repeated starts and stops, the frequent hard accelerations make for a different kind of training. but i won't lie; it's mostly for the adrenaline rush that you sometimes get when you get that perfect mix of traffic, streetscape, and the ride. the sprint up mass. ave. off of commonwealth, accelerating to the speed of traffic and getting over two lanes to make a left on boylston. then a straight shot down boylston, almost always faster than the traffic. glorious. or what about the fast ride down atlantic avenue, weaving in to get over a couple lanes to make a left on india street, to jump into the middle of usually stopped traffic on state street, weaving your way uphill to merge right into the middle of four lanes on tremont. quality. there's also the fun of riding through harvard square, cutting across traffic to follow mass. ave out of it towards central square. i don't do that one quite as often, but i should do it more. and finally, there's my favorite, which is shooting down beacon hill at top speed. and this, my dear readers, is the source of today's rant. you may have heard it before, but that's okay. today i got up to 34mph going down beacon street. a few cars cleared the intersection in front of me, with a green light. absent the cars, the tourists with their 'cheers' souvenir bags streamed across the street. and this is my pet peeve, which is to say, refusing to accord me the same respect as a car. do they really think that 210 pounds of me and 25 pounds of bike isn't going to fuck them up? dammit, there was no way in hell i was slowing down. i found a gap and sliced through 'em, in the end, but really, do they think i have to stop for them even if i have a green light, just 'cause i ain't a car? hell, cars accelerate for free. i have to work for it. but, you know, even when it's bad, it's good.

i decided that i’d get two things done at once today. i knew i needed to put a little time in at work, but i also wanted to get out and exercise. i really didn’t want to sit in traffic driving to maynard, either, so i saddled up and hopped on my bike. the uphill climb from waltham to the ‘nard was rough, having not done so much riding lately, but i got here, and was making some good progress, being a little less fried than i was yesterday afternoon.

and then solidworks crashed, without warning (usually you can, in retrospect, realize that you were pushing it; not so here). so, i’ve gotten nothing done.

i think it’s a sign.