Category: exercise

Bike ride on a day off

A few weeks ago I took a day off and spent part of it taking about a 20 mile bike ride around town.

Grave stones among the trees

Mirrored fence in Oakhurst

Springing trees in Oakhurst

PATH just south of Agnes Scott

Flowers in Decatur

Water break on the Candler Park PATH

In Little Five Points

MLK on Freedom Pkwy

Atlanta from bridge over Freedom Pkwy

Bunny at the Krog tunnel

Picking up a banh mi in East Atlanta at We Suki Suki. It fits perfectly in a bottle cage.

About to destroy that banh mi with some leftover kale salad.

 

Snoqualmie & Twin Falls

We hadn’t planned on renting a car in Seattle but since we got in at midnight it ended up making sense. Who am I kidding…we didn’t plan anything for Seattle except for seeing Portishead. But I didn’t even look at stuff to do that would involve driving. So while munching donuts and pastries Saturday morning, I started looking around for something we could do. Turns out Snoqualmie Falls is only 30 miles East of Seattle. And didn’t involve any work. Just cross the street and look at them. That was an easy sell.

Whoops. I guess she said no.

 

Pockets of mist, railroad trestle.

These are the falls that were used in Twin Peaks. I think all my pictures were too misty to really see the Inn to the left of the falls.

 

While we were out that way, I looked for something else for us to do. Twin Falls wasn’t much further down the road. While looking for it, we randomly drove the rental car up a mountain trail.

It was pretty sketchy. Despite the no shooting signs, we came upon some dudes sitting in a van with the door open shooting the shit out of a hillside. See, clearly, no shooting going on here.

 

We eventually found the trail head. The internets say the trail is 3 miles round trip but it felt more like five, at least to this flatlander. Of course, we were constantly embarrassed by people bringing small children down the trail as we were at times puffing our way up. Need more bike rides, less donuts.

Moss was growing on everything.

 

The trees were huge and the air so clean.

 

This was our reward for the hike.

I’ve got a few more pictures from Twin Falls here.

First Silver Comet Trail ride

Usually I don’t like to drive my bike somewhere to ride it. It just seems a little wrong. But there’s only so far I can ride to ride. So Monday I packed up the bike and drove up to the beginning of the Silver Comet Trail in Smyrna. After looking at the maps and mileage online, I decided to go for the Rambo trail access, 22.22 miles away. Yeah, that’s right, RAMBO. Okay, I didn’t pick it because of the name but because the next one was another 11 miles which would’ve put me over 60 miles. That’s a bit too ambitious. Nick came with me despite repeated warnings about how slow I am.

When I do rides like this, I like to go mostly without stopping to the halfway mark, then if I want to take pictures, do it on the way back. And that’s how it worked this time except in this one place. We headed onto a bridge over a railroad track just as a train was approaching. We stopped to watch it pass under and they give us a couple of honks and they pass under. Yay!

See, Rambo Trailhead. Not even making that up.

The trail is downright luxurious compared to the crappy city streets I’m used to. Okay, driving to ride has its merits. We were lucky in that it was overcast which kept the temperatures down, but the trail is largely shaded too.

After 44.4 miles, it’s time for victory pizza at Maddio’s!

Bikeversary

Just over a year ago, I finally stopped thinking about riding my bike and actually started doing it. The height of summer might not have been the best time for this undertaking, but I did it and haven’t looked back.

It all started with little rides in my neighborhood at the beginning of July on a mountain bike I bought new in San Francisco in … 1995. The first rides made me want to puke. But I kept at it and tried to avoid the mid-day sun. And at the beginning of August, I started commuting to work 2-3 days a week, 9ish miles each way. And, it’s awesome!

After doing some 20+ mile weekend rides, it was time to think about getting another bike, a lighter road bike. I found this Fuji Finest on Craigslist. It fit, the price was right and it passed Matt’s look-over with bike mechanic eyes. It’s much more fun to ride than the commuter. Probably weighs half as much.

And we’ve had some fine adventures. Riding out to Stone Mountain and back. The ITP/OTP Ramble – 47 miles! And the Beltline Bike Tour – 27 miles. Quick rides to meet friends for dinner.

And, no, riding in Atlanta isn’t that bad, at least in town. Sure, there isn’t a ton of infrastructure, but cars have been pretty respectful to me on city streets. It helps that I’m mostly using 35mph or less roads and do my best to avoid dangerous roads.

Here are the resources I use the most:

Bikeforums.net: if you have a question, it has probably been answered on this site. If you can’t find your answer with their search bar, try using google – site:bikeforums.net your search string here

Atlanta Bicycle Coalition: nervous about riding city streets? These guys have a class for that! They also have organized rides for all levels, provide a bike valet service at events and are awesome advocates for cycling in the community.

Sheldon Brown: this is pretty much the encyclopedia for cycling on the internet. Learn how to do anything from installing brakes (I’ve done this!) to adjusting your saddle properly.

Zoic: ladies, want cute cycling clothes? Zoic has cute shorts and skirts that you won’t be embarrassed to wear around.

Shebeest: They make the normal road cycling shorts, but in matte fabric. Love mine. Hate having a big shiny ass. They also have some nice commuter shorts, capris.

This is getting long, so I’m not going into what I carry on my bike, exactly what I wear for commuting, sweat, stinkiness, winter, sore butt, etc. Feel free to ask about these things or I’ll eventually post about ’em.

Who knew coffee did this?

Okay, I knew coffee did this. I just didn’t really think about it but if you drink two gigantor cups of organic Ethiopian Yergachef dark roast just before going to the gym, your heart rate is going to run a bit higher than you expect. And take forever to get back down. So fewer calories burned as the poor treadmill struggles to keep you down in your target range. Meh.