Mile 1-7.5: Ride Bike to Work Every Day for a Week

Day 1, Part 1 of Experiment, “Ride Bike to Work Every Day for a Week” Complete.

The route: the crazy amalgamation of bike lanes and whatnot from my house to downtown; 7.5 miles, mostly low rolling hills and a couple steep downhills there, five insane hills on the way back. Google Maps says 40 minutes there, 44 minutes back. For me it is more like 35 minutes there and 45 minutes back. But we’ll see if I get faster or slower as the week progresses…

Today, I made it in 35 minutes, plus the 15 minutes of locking up the bike and taking a really quick shower and changing into my work clothes. So I walked into my office right around 8:50. Ideally leave at 7:45 instead of 8 and that way, I don’t have to rush on the ride or to get ready once at work.

Goal for tomorrow: get ready faster and leave sooner.
1. Fill up camel back night before and leave in the refrigerator.
2. Make steel cut oatmeal tonight so that you can just heat it up before you go.
3. Kind of punked out a little on the ride, need to figure out if there is a supplement or something I can eat or drink in the morning to get over that first hill out of the neighborhood without stopping.
4. Pick out clothes and have them loaded in the panier the night before (hardest thing ever, since I dress by mood).
5. The adjustment I did on the bike was not the best, may need to take it to the bike shop sometime this week and have them tune it up for me.

Physically, I feel really good, since I really enjoy riding and had a few moments where I was going really fast and that is always fun. And in the park, I was trying to ride on this 4” wide strip of the sidewalk that didn’t have cobblestones in it, which I mostly did but then kind of went off in the grass and that was funny.

Finishing up at the park is nice too, after the aggressiveness of riding on the street, which is not too bad, although this bitch in a silver VW Jetta scared the shit out of me on Dawson. I could hear her behind me and Dawson has those speed islands which a car and a bike cannot both go through at the same time. Either she would have to speed up and cut me off, or slow down for the 30 seconds it was going to take me to get past the island. Instead she sped up right on my ass, passed me on the left side of the island, you know in the oncoming traffic side. Funny thing is, even though she beat me to the light at Dawson and Barton Creek, I still beat her across the intersection. So, she probably could have just slowed down and then passed me safely and still arrived at the red light basically at the same time without physically endangering someone and breaking traffic laws. Anyone who’s ever been hit by a car knows how scary the sound of a car’s engine revving behind you is.

See you next Tuesday, VW Jetta lady.