4 posts tagged “commute”
I decided to ride down to work via Bernard this morning and I was rewarded with my fastest time and average speed yet! I didn't start out trying to break any records, but as I began the descent north of 29th I realized that I could push my average up over 30km/h quite easily as I cruised down the hill at 40km/h for several long stretches. I felt really good and pushed the whole downhill in my highest gear. Once downtown, I headed north on Howard and caught my breath while waiting at the traffic lights. Center Court at Hoopfest was already setup so I lost a little time (and average speed) navigating Riverfront Park, but I was able to get back up over 30km/h on parts of the Centennial Trail. My final results were 22:06 total riding time and 29.4km/h average for a 10.78km ride.
In other commuting notes this will be the first week all summer that I've biked too and from work every day. Checking my log, I've never biked more than two consecutive days without a rest day and never more than three times in a week. Yesterday was kind of a hard day, but my legs feel good today. The ride home won't be easy, but I'm definitely looking forward to giving my legs a couple days off. I'm also taking July 4-6 off next week so I may have to get in some longer morning rides before the kids get up to keep my conditioning up without the usual commute to rely on.
Today I crossed the 400K mark on my cycle computer odometer on my afternoon ride home. Even better I reached one of my goals for the summer by averaging just over 20 km/h on the ride as well. Considering I have to climb roughly 90m from work to home across 4km + km of rolling terrainthat's harder than it sounds. A big key to my success was using my second chainring and lower gears to spin more freely rather than just trying to gut it out like I have in the past. I felt pretty wiped out at the end of the ride, but I'm feeling good now. It will be interesting to see how my legs feel tomorrow morning. I'm definitely hoping to get in five straight days of commuting this week.
My new DuoFold 85% Polyester 15% cotton t-shirt felt better than I thought it would and didn't get soaked with sweat until I finished the ride and lost my air ocolin.. I definitely prefer %100 poly dri-fit thin polyester type shirts for workouts/riding, but these shirts were a good buy and seem to work surprisingly well.
On today's morning commute I got not one, but two unintelligible aural assaults from passing cars filled with teenage boys presumably on their way to high school. The second time actually happened on campus so I can only presume they were taking a shortcut. I must admit I enjoyed watching them hit the first speed bump in front of Catherine - Monica at driving speed just moments after passing me.
Just when I was starting to develop a nice morning biking routine and a favorite morning route into work the City of Spokane closed a large portion of it for much needed repaving. Next summer it will be great to have Southeast Blvd and Sherman repaired, but in the meantime I'm kind of scrambling to figure out what I'm going to do.
I scoped out possible routes that pass through downtown this morning, but I didn't find much to my liking. I don't mind waiting at the occasional light for a minute or two, but sitting at a light every other block in the heart of downtown isn't very fun. A straight shot north on Howard street is probably the way to go in the morning. On the other hand, after looking at the map above for a while it occurs to me that Perry - Arthur to 2nd may be my most satisfactory alternative since it will allow me to use more of my preferred morning route.
