Ruminations

My mind tends to wander a bit as I ride into work... actually, my mind tends to wander a bit anywhere, but we're not talking about that. This morning, my commuting weather was overcast and 34 degrees, Fahrenheit. So my mind was fixed a bit on the weather. While that might not exactly bone chilling to those living in North Dakota, it is plenty chilly for western Oregon at 6:10am. Fortunatly I was dressed for it, with clothing from Sporthill and a beany under my helmet from GoLite. My shoes were Lake's and are very toasty. It's amazing what kind of weather you can ride in a be comfortable if you have the right clothing.

It didn't help that last night my wife and I watched "Touching the Void" on PBS. It's the sort of thing that makes you never want to be cold again. Or go ice climbing. If you haven't seen it, watch it, or read the book.

We took the longer, hillier way to work. I didn't really want to arrive and I was just enjoying the morning. Unfortunately, there was no sunrise to see, too many low clouds. But at least there wasn't any fog.

Good Mornings

When I started commuting by bicycle (12 miles each way) to work, I wondered how long I would last. Since I started in May, or thereabouts, the weather was good. If it wasn't, I didn't ride. I told myself, "it's too hard on my road bike to ride in the rain and road grit." While mostly true, I really didn't want to ride in the rain... at all. This left me wondering if I was going to continue when winter came. I wanted to for a number of reasons. First, with the birth of our son, time to ride has been dimished. With the purchase of our house/rental property, ride time has been dimished. However, my desire to put in serious miles has increased. As pressures from work and pressures from home (not from my wife, these are more internal type pressures to get things done) increased I need a way out. Plus, I needed a way to keep up my mileage over the winter, something that has always been a problem.

So the challenge, how to remove all my excuses to drive. First, I ride in with two other riders. Either of them would stomp me flat in a race and both are commited to commuting by bike year-round. And both will give me crap if I miss a day. Next, I needed to take care of my phobia about getting my road bike wet. No problem, a quick call to Jon netted my Fisher back. Once I got that built up as a rain bike, most of my excuses vanished. I had the clothes that I needed, I had the lights I needed, I had the bike I needed and I had someone to pound on my door at 6:30 in the morning to make sure that I was riding.

This morning as I logged my 33-35 miles for the week (I know, it's only Tuesday) I thought of how wonderful it is to be up and riding as the sun comes up. To be enjoying the crisp - 44 degree - weather. This morning, there was no fog and no real cloud cover. The sun was peaking over the Cascades, giving a red glow the clouds to the east. Traffic was minimal, and I haven't had a close call in days. This is why I commute by bike. To be on my bike, enjoying life before I get down to work. Before I face the stresses of the day. Before I deal with sometimes surly coworkers. Before I have a care in the world.

Hmmm... I wonder what long distance touring would be like...