Ride 17 - I felt a good bike ride coming on & catastrophe was averted

I was up at 5:00 AM when the alarm went off and headed out to the garage to get ready to ride. Once the garage door was open the magnitude of the day hit me. It was overcast (I could see a little filtered moonlight), there was no wind, and the temperature was perfect. And it was quiet. I could hear the crickets and that was it. That was awesome. I just had this sense that I was going to turn in a special ride today.

Once I got started and warmed up I started to feel really good. Now that I’m riding the Crotch Rocket (Cannondale R-300), I felt like I was flying. To me it was flying but to a more experienced rider I’m sure it was a crawl. Regardless, I could tell I was making good time. My brother-in-law was not at our meeting spot so I kept on going.

As I neared my turnaround point I decided to go ahead and extend the mileage a little by going to the next median turnaround point. Once I turned around I kept mashing it all the way home.

Nothing too terribly exciting for this ride. I saw one runner and that was it. I figured there would be more for a Friday. There was little traffic as well which was nice.

I wasn’t kidding about a special day for a ride. This was the first day I could really open it up with the Cannondale and I did. Here are today’s numbers: 12.17 miles, 47:05, 18.7 mph max, and 15.5 mph avg. Those are all new records for me (except max) for my morning ride. The perfect weather conditions and road bike made all the difference. Being able to get the avg speed up let me ride about 7 tenths of a mile more but do it 2 minutes faster. Awesome!

Now, after getting back home, getting ready for work, and leaving home with my daughter (whom I take to school every morning), things became interesting. The exit from our neighborhood turns onto a service road that leads to a stop sign. There is a large, divided six-lane, road just off the service road. As I approach the stop sign I hear a very unnatural sound. The kind where the hairs on the back of your neck start to stand up. I’m driving so I look over my left shoulder and see a car spinning across three lanes and begin to enter the ditch that seperates the large six-lane road from the service road. He’s coming right at us. The car hits the ditch and throws up a ton of dirt and grass. Luckily (for me, not the driver of the spinning car), there’s a light pole about four feet into the ditch and the car hits it broadside right in the driver’s door. I immediately throw my car into park, put on the hazards, and run over to the wrecked car. The driver (the only passenger) is conscious and asks me to call 911. I call 911 and explain the situation. By the time I get off the phone someone else has stopped and the driver of the wrecked car is out walking around. He seems fine. I have no idea what caused the accident. His was the only car involved and my guess is that he was speeding and lost control of his car.

After leaving the scene I had a chance to think about the whole ordeal and realized how lucky my daughter and I were. There’s no doubt in my mind that if that light pole hadn’t been there that his car would have either slid straight into mine, or, hit the ditch, started to roll, and rolled into my car. Either scenario would have been ugly. Luckily, that light pole was there. Even luckier, he hit the lightpole square in the drivers door. I’m confident, that with his speed, if he had hit the pole on either the front or rear fender that he would have been thrown into a spin and hit me as well.

All I can say is that I’m thankful we made it through ok.

Ride 16 - Time for the new (old) bike

After what seems weeks (it was) I was actually able to take my old bike out for a spin today. It felt like new but it was my trusty Cannondale R-300 that I bought way back in 1994 when I was stationed in Connecticut. I had originally bought it for a trip I did from Connecticut to Ohio and have lugged the bike around ever since. I don’t know how many miles I have on it but it’s a few. Over the last couple of weeks I went over it with a fine tooth comb and only needed to replace the rear rim to get it rolling again. I’ll write up another article that covered the whole process. So, for today’s ride I traded in the Tank (pictured left) and headed out with my long-time friend. I met my brother-in-law at his neighborhood entrance and he says, “Oh…you’re on the crotch rocket.” Indeed I was and now it has a nickname-Crotch Rocket.

When I left the house I was skeptical of the wind. It was gusting pretty good but I didn’t want to lose a ride day so I headed out into it. The wind left me alone except for one stretch that headed North West and another that headed West.

Riding good ‘ole Crotch Rocket was like a dream. It transferred pedal power so much better than The Tank and rolled effortlessly. Without even realizing it I was cruising along at 15+ mph and had to keep holding back or I would drop my brother-in-law who was on a mountain bike. The thing pedaled and rode so much better than I remembered. It’s not state-of-the-art by any stretch of the imagination but I love it. It’s an older Shimano 7-speed with shifters on the down tube. For laughs I weighed The Tank and Crotch Rocket to see how they compared. It wasn’t even close. The Tank came in at 33 pounds while Crotch Rocket floated in at an even 20 pounds. A 13 pound drop in weight. Amazing. Someday I hope to move up to something nicer but for now it’ll do just fine.

My numbers for today’s ride don’t look too great because I did a lot of holding up. I was able to kick it in for the last two miles home (I gave my brother-in-law heads up that I was going to push it) and it felt great.

Here are the numbers for today: 11.51 miles, 53:35, 18.2 mph max, and 12.8 mph avg.

Also, I went over 200 miles today since starting Biking To Live.

Ride 14 - Windy but good

I got to bed very, very late last night mainly due to reading a book but I wanted to ride today. I wasn’t sure how far I would ride but I had to get out. I had only ridden on Wednesday this week so I knew I needed another bike ride. I slept in until 8:00 AM to get a little sleep and then rolled out. It was overcast outside but nice.

I rolled out of the driveway not know how I was going to ride. It took a couple of minutes to get across the big intersection coming out of my neighborhood but once I did I was able to settle in pretty good. After a few minutes of riding I checked my speed and I was cruising along at 14+ mph. It didn’t even feel like it. I checked my gearing and I was pushing a bigger gear than I normally do and I was doing so almost effortlessly. It felt good. I’ve noticed over the last couple of rides that I’ve been able to push bigger gears easier. Read more

Ride 13 - What a bike ride

After having three straight days off the bike I was ready to ride again. I wasn’t sure what to expect because of my short layoff but I was optimistic.

5:00 AM came bright and early and I was ready. I had a new set of bibs and a shirt come in the mail yesterday so I was eager to try them out. I’d also installed a new front light to increase my visibility to oncoming traffic. The air was a little chilly this morning but not bad. Once I got to spinning I warmed up quickly.

My first long straightaway I was cooking. I was averaging around 14 mph which is about what I saw on my last couple of bicycle rides. Traffic seemed rather light this morning and I wasn’t complaining. As I neared my first turn I couldn’t believe how good I felt. The bibs felt good, the legs felt good, and I was movin’. The rest must have done me some good. During this stretch I’m pushing along anywhere from 14 to 16 mph. As I neared my turnaround point I slowed down a bit due to a little uphill work and because I wanted to conserve my energy for the second half. Read more

Ride 12 - Earth, WIND, and Fire

I had good intentions for a longer ride today but my good intentions quickly changed to just making it through a normal weekday ride. Starting out it was overcast and looked like it might rain. The wind seemed to be blowing a little but nothing too bad. With a high of 94 predicted for today it was also starting to warm up. I met my brother-in-law over at his neighborhood and we started out.

The first leg was ok with us moving pretty good. Traffic was a little heavy but not too bad. We actually saw a couple of bikers headed the other way. As we made our first turn we were hit square in the face by a stiff wind. The wind started to pickup and we were struggling to maintain any kind of speed. The clouds to the west were starting to look a little more threatening. At this point we decided cut the ride short and head back after just doing the normal weekday ride route. So, that’s what we did.

Am I disappointed? Sure. I wanted a longer ride today. I had planned on riding over to the University of North Florida, making the loop around the college, and then heading back home. Should have been in the neighborhood of 20-25 miles. To make matters worse we were passed by a guy on a bike easily 25 years my elder. He was riding a real road bike and we weren’t pushing it at all so I don’t feel too bad about it. Maybe it made the other guy feel good to pass us young whipper snappers. If so, it was worth it.

Here are today’s numbers: 11.54 miles, 53:59, 16.3 mph max, and 12.8 mph avg

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