Sharing is Caring

I was on my bike last night doing my normal Monday night McCoy's ride, having a good time when from a car going the opposite direction came some angry words. I couldn't quite make out the complete sentence,  but I did hear "GET OFF........". I am going to assume  that he was saying something to the effect of us riding on the street. This is nothing new, this happens to every cyclist at least once in their life. My first thought is, "you @ss-hole, don't you know I have the right to ride on the street" and "the sideWALK is for WALKING". In this day and age of everything going green and gas prices hovering around $4.00 a gallon you would think there would be less people who react like this, but there is and they simply don't know that the road is to be shared, and they feel compelled to clue us in on traffic laws of which they have concocted in their ideal driving Utopia. These are the people who you need to watch out for when riding your bike. They are the ones who will go out of their way to make sure you understand that riding your bicycle on the street is not acceptable. The ones that see red and react before thinking things through. Of course as a cyclist we have a responsibility to behave and follow the traffic laws like everyone else. We must also share the road with motorists. I have seen plenty of cyclists setting a bad example. Pushing their way into traffic or riding two abreast with too wide a birth. Sharing the road is only becoming more and more common these days and whether you are a motorist or a cyclist, do everyone a favor and read up on the rules of the road.

Here is a link to some road rules for cyclists http://www.be-safe.org/css_com/bicycle/rules.html

Keep It Moving

Last weekend was spent moving. I took Friday off from work and my sister-in-law was in town to help. Kate is less than four weeks away from having the baby and her carrying things is not a good idea. We have moved to a part of town called "the historic northeast". The homes around here are older Victorian era homes. The surrounding areas are not the most desirable to live but this small pocket of a neighborhood is really awesome. We are renting a carriage house behind a large home. The main house was built in the 1890s and the carriage house was built in 1908. It is a really neat space and the best part is we have use of the fenced in yard for Sadie our dog. Sadie loves running off leash. We aren't completely finished with moving, we still have some stuff left in the old apartment but we have a couple of more weeks to get it all moved. I have to say that I woke up every day this weekend expecting to be sore from lifting and carrying things and it never came to be. I think cycling has saved my life. The new place is one block from cliff drive and I know that will become my new training ground. It has long flats and snake turn climbs. Plus I have moved further away from my routine training rides so I will be getting more miles in from the extra commute.

My training this last week has been less than desired but the time that I was able to dedicate to it was well used. Tuesday night Mark and I met another team mate Venasa in her neck of the woods(the west side) and we rode up every incline we could find. She has a routine that she does and wanted to share it with us and boy it was a doozie. It was one of those workouts where you feel like you have accomplished something.

This is Mark celebrating after finishing the workout

The view from up here is well worth the ride up.

Thursday night was fun too. I remember doing this ride for the first time August 2009. I had done a 12 mile ride the Monday before it and thought, "12 miles felt easy, heck I can do more". It was 98 degrees that evening and I was riding with the slower group(I didn't think they were all that slow). I was not only dropped hard but managed to get lost. My ride that night had a few extra lonely miles added on. I was telling Mark that story last night and he said that he was surprised that I decided to do the ride again. I told him that I had spent $800.00 on a new bike and was afraid of what my wife would say if I let the bike sit and collect dust. If she only knew how much my bike now costs. It is fun to see how much improvement I have made even in the last few months. It pays to continue to ride your bike in the winter.