Didn’t bike in today, because I’m picking up the littles after work — and trying to get a 7th grader & a 9th grader into one of those little pull-behind carts so that I can bike them home seems impractical. Still, though, I had to buy gas today $80.00 . . . we’ll see if I can bike in more often.
Yesterday, though, sucked coming home from work. First, my chain slipped heading up the hill immediately outside of the office. I got things back on, but due to my inability to begin pedaling while heading uphill, I had to walk to the top of the hill. Then, I was afraid to shift at all, so I went straight to the bike shop. After an hour’s worth of adjustments (having me try things immediately after each), we think things are better – and I can say that I biked home without incident. Well, it was windy.
I swear, the wind was mocking me.
It just seemed that, no matter which direction I was heading, the wind shifted to be blowing directly at me — and there was a true correlation between how hard I was pedaling (e.g. during a climb) and how hard the wind was blowing (the news listed gusts at 35mph, and I’d believe it, as there were times that I really had to concentrate on just keeping a straight ride). I will admit that I never really care much about speed – but I always track it. A relaxed ride will have me traveling between 14 and 16 miles per hour. If I push myself a little, that number gets pretty close to 18. If I’m pedaling all out on a flat surface, I’ll see 22-28 mi/hr. I tried pedaling as hard as I could, on flat surfaces yesterday, and I couldn’t get above 15 mi/hr. Yuck.
Still, though – $80 for a fill-up. I hope to bike in three days next week (plus a 100km ride on the holiday).
