Yesterday morning I was all ready to go. Dressed in my usual orange shorts, turtleneck, Arron.
The weather was perfect! 34degrees, winds NNE 6 mph, partially cloudy.
Somehow I managed to leave the house at 6:52. 10 Minutes LATE!
I felt good & the weather was nice so I pedaled like crazy (for me) I used the higher gears & really tried to push.., Made Both hills, (but since I was hurrying.. I thought my heart would burst out of m chest)
I made to work at 7:28 am. 8 Miles in 38 minutes!! My hair was a sweaty sopping wet mop of curls.
The rest of the day (we had a trainer in so it involved lots of sitting on a hard desk) I felt pretty stiff around the knees. I had to keep getting up & walking around.
I had another little scare.
I was actually on a good part of the pedal, on a medium residential arterial with bike lane. Due to the curve angle of the next intersecting residential street I could observe a man into his 6th or 7th decade getting into a ¾ ton & backing down the drive with a 16 ft stock trailer on the back. He got out of the drive way, straightened out & edged towards the intersection with the road was pedaling on.
I really feel like we made eye contact. I turned my head so I was looking right at him. I could see his eye coulour was either blue or grey. I could almost swear we made eye contact, and then he pulled out right into me basically. I braked, and swerved to avoid the front driver’s side corner of the trailer, & was in the oncoming line by a little bit. Luckily the oncoming driver had reviewed the scene & already slowed down. The oncoming driver asked how I was, and then we all went on our ways. On my way home though I pedaled past his house & got the license off the truck (the stock trailer was illegally plate-less & lightless) . Thursday is sale barn day & I am positive he was heading to the stock sale( so next Thursday I will be watching out for him!!)
This morning/ I was all set to ride today, then 10 minutes before I was out the door it began raining/sleeting.
Any one out there pedaling in rain/sleet? What special things do you do? Any item of equipment that you really appreciate?
I am going to need to pedal lightly this weekend to get up to the 48 miles… Next week I will no longer have access to a neighbors car. It’ll need to be an 80 mile pedal week.
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2 comments:
Yikes! on your close call, but glad to hear that you made it alright.
Go you on your rapidly increasing speed! I've been enjoying reading about your progress. I found out about your blog from Zen and the Art of Triathlon.
The things that I appreciate most when I bike in the rain are white reflective clothing so that others can see me better and a good waterproof bag. I may be soaking wet, but it's nice to have clean, dry clothes to change into.
- Hak42
biking_geek
my (summertime) commute is 27km on mostly a road with 50mph(80kph) speed limit and no shoulder -- I feel your stress.
Don't trust eye contact -- many drivers don't see you as a vehicle -- I sometimes wave at them like a cop at an intersection to get them to stop/pay attention.
Keep your head up and watch out for the crazies -- defensive driving is about assuming that the other guy will do the dumbest possible thing.
Oh, yeah. On the cost thing -- remeber gas is not the only cost associated with a car:repairs, insurance, etc. all count.
-- you are still doing great -- i told you it would get better.
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