Two Wheel Blogs

I am not a commuter...this just does not work for me. I thought I could be, but I can not. I used to *say* I commuted, but it really was just me sneaking in more ride opportunities while someone else carried all my work materials back and forth in their car for me.

Last night I commuted home, and this morning I commuted back to work.

Sorry, I have been a little short on time lately. Here are three quotes for the day.

In recent years, I have been riding solo a lot more than previously. My "spare" time is far less than it used to be. In the absence of an abundance of spare time, I have to be more efficient with my riding time, and that unfortunately means less opportunity to wait for others to join me.

One partner I can always count on is the wind. The wind is always somewhere out on the roads waiting for me. If the wind can not be found at low speeds, I only need to push the pace harder, and I eventually catch up to my partner (the wind).

Some great wind related quotes:

Monday I had brought my running gear to work in order to do a run at lunch but I had a problem to resolve so I didn't have time to do it. I left the gear at work. So yesterday I commuted in going through the park. I did a short 6 minute interval and managed around 235 AP, then headed to the office. Well the running gear was there staring at me so I decided to double up and I went out and did a 10 minute interval at near 5k pace during my lunch break. Added on another couple minutes as I headed back. Then I hammered it home after work fairly hard. That was a good day's worth of training with a nice accumulation of stress.

So I was reading this New York Times story about electric bikes this morning and the thought occurred to me that when (not if, when) gas gets high enough we're going to be seeing a lot of things like this out on the roads. I mean, how hard a decision will it be to drop a grand or two on a tiny electric or gas two wheeler when you can save that much in gasoline spending in less than a year?

I don't anticipate doing any racing for a little while longer. At least not until my slot car track is up and to the point that we can race on it. So that will be a little while longer. For sure cyclocross will be the focus of this year. In the mean time, I am mixing it up training wise. Commute to work as often as possible, go out for a run on the days when I don't. Play lots of different things with my son (like soccer, basketball, etc...).

Yesterday, I was concerned about the possibility of a shower on the way home so I ran at lunch. 12 minutes at a steady pace. Rest then 3, 30 second intervals all out with 4 minute rests. Those were hard and I felt tired afterward. When I got home, the little one was waiting and we played a little soccer in the back yard.

Today's weather forecast looked good enough so I rode the bike in. Near perfect temperature. It was a great ride. I took the short route as I was still a bit tired from yesterday. But I hammered it a bit on the inclines. Just call me the mix master and this is the mix master report!