Taking the bike to go exercise

 

One of the parents on my daughter's soccer team has gotten the girls together over the summer to work on strength and fitness. He's modeled it after the various fitness boot camps that have become popular over the last decade. Player participation has been high partly because the parents come along for their workout and compete against their kids.

Since I ride with many of the same soccer dads on Sunday mornings, it is fitting that we ride with our daughters over to Piedmont Park where we gather for boot camp.

Ride (and workout) Summary

Round Trip Distance: 3.5 miles
Number of planks: 3 sets at 40 seconds for each of front, back and sides for 12 total.
Number of 'suicides': 1 more than I should have done.
Post-workout Meal: Willy's at Piedmont Park (with three refills of lemonade)
Weather: Open your windows and let the breeze come through the house.

Contributing Commuting Routes to a Visual Catalog

I've added a big step forward with the ability for others to add their routes to the visual catalog. Routes in bikely.com routes may be added directly. Leave a comment if you've got a route in a different tool if you'd like me to upload your route.

These are the steps for adding your route from Bikely.com:

1. If you're using Firefox, drag the following link to the Bookmark Toolbar. If you're using IE, right-click the following link and "Add to Favorites ...". IE will prompt you asking if the link is safe because it contains the javascript for saving the bikely route. You'll click on this bookmark later to save the bikely.com route that is being displayed (Add to Catalog).
   
2. Visit the bikely.com page that displays the route you want to add to the catalog.
   
3. Click on the bookmark and your route is saved to the catalog. The browser then shows the complete catalog.
   
4. You may add as many as you like.
   

You can also view the current catalog without adding a new route.

This is being published on the Facebook page "Bike Commuters of Atlanta" so routes for bicycle commutes in Atlanta would certainly be preferred, but it would be good to see other utility cycling routes. I plan to add a second catalog of routes for recreational and group rides. Who knows, if this takes off, I may add more categories, but I'd like to start with commuting and utility routes.

There's a performance reason for starting with this type of catalog. Commuting and utility routes are generally much shorter and load much faster. When the catalog has long routes (50+ miles), the performance is sluggish. If your commute is 50 miles however, I'd like to see it in here.

Refrigerated Pannier

 

OK, snow probably isn't a big deal for much of the Northern Hemisphere, but in Atlanta, we're supposed to be working on our tans this time of year.

It's not a lot of snow -- and it comes down in pellets rather than flakes -- but it did help keep my frozen vegetables chilly. On most trips to the grocery store in April, I put the cold stuff on my back, but in the backpack is where the black-eyed peas, walnuts and bananas rode home today.

Errand Summary

Round Trip Distance: 4.0
Number of Cyclists seen: 1
Number of pre-school kids at the grocery store: 7 (all the kiddy-carts were taken)
Weather: Snow mixed with bouts of sun, stirred up by plenty of gusting wind

Cargo Bike?

If the cargo is the right shape.


Today I ran an errand that required a little thought and a couple of bungie cords.

My daughter's high school soccer team raises money through sponsorships and my job was to install the sponsor's banner.

I've got a big pannier, but it isn't that big. I've got a rack on the back, but it isn't an extended-frame Xtra Cycle. Fortunately, the load was narrow enough to fit along the top tube without messing up my pedal stroke too bad. My knee would have probably had a hard time if this had been a long distance or if there were any uphills (some destinations are downhill all the way, and this is one of them).

Delivering this by bike was perfect.

More bike connections:

• The sponsor and Osteria/Doc Chey's owner Rich Chey rides with us on Sunday mornings.
  
• The sponsor and Atkins Park owner Warren Bruno rides with us on Sunday mornings and leads us on the Atkins Park Santa Ride.
  
• Should have gotten a picture, but it looked like several students rode their bikes to school today.
  
• Met a neighbor Tom out on a ride (he's retired) and he may join us Sunday mornings.
  

40 lbs. of food

 

When I go grocery shopping on the bike, I either pick up a few things I really want or I've got a long list that I won't be able to load onto the bike. I'm getting better at selecting what goes on the bike without crushing the bread or breaking the eggs. I've also learned what should go in the pannier versus the backpack. (Summer rules mean cold stuff goes against my back.)

As I'm posting this, it occurs to me that I need to take pictures of what is in each of the panniers and the backpack. I brought home peanut butter, grits, two loaves of bread, a dozen eggs, cans of soup, avocados, black-eyed peas, walnuts, fig newtons, yogurt cups, and bananas, but all you can see in this photo is a couple of boxes of breakfast cereal.

Local Markets by Bike

Riding your bike to the market is good. Since most food on your plate travels 1,500 miles, a market that sells only locally grown food is that much better. This 15-mile bike ride on Saturday Sept. 27 will cruise from local market to local market in Atlanta's Intown neighborhoods, and you can join them (follow this link).

Usually I don't promote a ride in which I won't actually participate, but this ride is just too brilliant. I wish I thought of it. I wish I could ride in it (I've committed to the Silver Comet Grand Opening Ride on the same date).

One of the destinations -- down the street from me -- is the oldest certified Organic Market in the US, the Morningside Farmer's Market.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 18.7
Number of Cyclists seen: 5 inbound and 15 outbound
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail with Orme Park extension
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Gray and cool day (low 60s) spitting a bit of drizzle.

Slowing Down

I've been riding a lot lately, and the energy drop from inadequate rest has me reconsidering how I ride. I've been logging my miles for years, but only in the past two days have I realized how attached I'd become to average speed. I was happy to find I don't have to worry about my average speed dipping if I don't enter a time for the trip. I still get credit for the miles, but I don't wear myself down trying to keep a certain pace when what I really need is rest.

And today, for the first time in 10 days, I didn't get on the bike at all. (I do have an itch to get out, though.)

It is perhaps for this reason, the following blog caught my eye: Slow Bicycle. I wouldn't have given a second look to a site about riding slow on 3-speed bikes if I hadn't reached my personal epiphany regarding average speed. The "style over speed" perspective brings into sharp focus a lot of the reasons we ride and don't ride in the US.

Slow Bicycle goes hand in hand with another recent development I need to post about: since early July, I ride a heavy commuter bike to work instead of my road bike. It's another trusty touring frame, but instead of 9-speed indexed shifters and aluminum frame, this commuter is a steel-framed friction-shifter from the early 80s. Complete with kickstand. A fellow rider donated the frame because it matches my size better and I've been happy to put it back into service.

But it is heavy and I ride to work a good 10% slower on this bike even with more effort. It's the extra effort that has been wearing me down. The old bike is helping me adjust my attitudes.

So speed has been one of my barometers for how much I'm getting out of the miles I put in and how smart I am with my rides, but I'm also reminding myself there are other ways to measure the rewards of time spent in the saddle.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 0
Number of Cyclists seen: 0
In-bound Route: bedroom downstairs to office
Out-bound Route: office to kitchen
Weather: Outside the window, looks pretty warm.

Firewall Errand

My Firewall/Router has been dying a slow death. It only works when it is a comfortable temperature, and the comfort zone has gradually been getting narrower and narrower.

When I discovered it liked to be warm, I sat the DSL modem on top and later wrapped the two inside a T-Shirt. Now, on cold mornings, I would have to get it going with a hair dryer with the heat turned up.

As mentioned several days ago, I've been wanting to run more errands on the bike. So, during lunch today, I rode over to the Office Depot. There were a few clouds, but mostly sunny as I headed out. Before I made the last turn, the skies opened up and drenched me within seconds. I dashed over to the store so I could get inside. When I got there, I found the store had moved, but fortunately the rain stopped as quick as it started and the sun was out again. It was a two-minute squirt of rain.

As I headed back to the office (crossing the interstate on 14th Street in the map), I considered taking Spring Street back south, but there was a fair amount of lunch traffic so I continued over to Peachtree and took that back in.



Green Marker is start/stop of my trip which proceeded clockwise. Red Marker is where the old Office Depot used to be. The new Office Depot is on Spring at the 't' in "St.".

When I got back to my desk, I looked up the new location of the Office Depot and found if I had taken Spring, I would have gone directly past it. I made a big loop around the store that was 3 blocks away.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.5 including lunch loop
Number of Cyclists seen: Wasn't paying attention today
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton and the other Office Depot
Weather: Mostly sunny except for the brief squirt of rain