See RocBike for a full ride report of my 45-miler.
And my flickr set of the ride is here.
Here are my favorite pictures from the day, a swan on the nest
protected by its mate
and a family of Canada geese
Remember that quote about a young man's fancy turning to thoughts of love in spring? Same for birds...
I completed my 45-mile bike ride today (and none too soon, as tomorrow is my birthday!). I covered terrain from Rochester to Lake Ontario, back to Rochester, to Perinton, and BACK home to Rochester. It felt great...complete ride report to follow.
(Cross-posted at RocBike).
After a powerful Earth Day sermon that echoed many of the themes in Michael Pollan's recent call to each individual to do something about climate change, and included a mention of the Rochester Chicken Club (of which I am a proud member--more on that topic to come), I came out to find this on my parked bike.
And this week, on my ride to yoga class, where I met my daughter, my new Ortlieb panniers managed the task of carrying our two yoga mats admirably.
I splurged on the panniers after I decided that an XtraCycle is not right for me, at this point. An XtraCycle is great if you want to be able to give someone else a ride, but my 17 and 19-year olds aren't likely to want to be seen on the back of their mom's bike. And everyone else I might be traveling with would likely ride their own! So, I got the panniers instead; they hold plenty of groceries and are very easy to use. I recommend them if you're in the market.
Bikes, chickens, and yoga...what more could you want?
Radical Cross-Stitch tagged me for a meme. Does it sound like I'm speaking a foreign language? If you don't know, memes are kinda like chain letters. I always hated chain letters, but memes can be fun. You learn something new about people whose blogs you read, and you get to direct people to other bloggers they may not have discovered.
In this one, you're supposed to tell 6 things about your life which look like manias or tics, and then pass it to 6 other persons. So here are mine.
#1. Bike helmets--I've written before about the people I've known who've been seriously hurt or killed while cycling. While there is some controversy within the cycling community about the promotion of helmets (some argue that helmets don't protect you from the many different kinds of injuries that can happen and/or that they give cyclists a false sense of protection), I'm all for protecting brains. When I see a cyclist without a helmet, it's all I can do to refrain from yelling at them, "PUT A HELMET ON!!" Generally I do refrain from yelling it, but should anyone have the misfortune of being in the next seat/on the next bike to me, they will hear me rant and rave for several minutes about stupid cyclists who don't wear helmets.
My favorite comment about helmets is from The Art of Urban Cycling. Wear a helmet, but bike like you're not wearing one.
#2. Hummers--Actually, any SUVs. Hummers do not belong on streets. SUVs are not necessary for urban driving. (My mom calls them UAVs...Urban Assault Vehicles.) They waste gas and their owners too often drive as though their mere size gives them the right to hog roads and parking spaces. We should have more regulations which discourage driving these gas-guzzlers and encourage saner forms of transportation.
#3. The serial comma--You don't know what that is? Obviously you didn't have me for your high school English teacher. Here's the Wikipedia definition.
The serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma or Harvard comma) is the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (nearly always and or or; sometimes nor) that precedes the last item in a list of three or more items. The phrase "Portugal, Spain, and France", for example, is written with the serial comma, while "Portugal, Spain and France", identical in meaning, is written without it.
I believe in the serial comma. I admit that there is no logical reason for this other than the fact that that's how I was taught by MY high school English teacher. I just think it nicely separates each item in the series, according them each their own space all to themselves, without the conjunction running right up against them. Is that too much to ask?
#4. Proper pronunciation--If you are related to me, I will most definitely correct your pronunciation any time necessary. I may or may not refrain if your boss, dad, or best friend from high school is in the room. I am not trying to humiliate you; I just can't bear mispronunciation. In my mind, I am doing you and everyone else a favor by enlightening you as to the correct pronunciation of societal, paradigm, and epitome. (And you did notice my serial comma in that last sentence, didn't you?)
If you are not related to me, I may refrain from correcting you. Or I may not.
#5. Effective meetings--Have you noticed that these are getting more obnoxious as I go? In my mind, meetings (whether I'm at work, volunteering, or doing a group project for school) should be to-the-point and efficient. If they're meant for team-building and getting to know one another better, fine, but let me know in advance. Otherwise I expect meetings to have agendas, to move those agendas along in a timely manner, and to actually get things accomplished. I like to socialize, but I'll do it after the meeting, thank you very much. Get in, do what you need to do, and get out...that's my philosophy about meetings.
So, yeah, not everyone shares that philosophy. When I'm the boss, that's how meetings go...but I'm not always the boss. Then I get cranky at ineffective meetings. It's not always pretty. I'm trying to be more flexible.
#6. I am woman, hear me roar--I tend to take on too much in life. Yes, I do. I admit it. It's related to my eternal optimism. But god, there's so much good and fun stuff to do, it's hard to resist at times. I could have worse traits, right? (such as the belief that only I know how to correctly pronounce every word in the English language and how to run good meetings, perhaps?)
So there's my list. The one thing I feel a bit uncomfortable about with memes is any perceived pressure on the people I tag. So I'm going to tag these 6--but you know, it's your blog, do the meme or don't do it. I won't be mad. Here you go--Tracy at RahChaChow, Ann at Purls off a string, Michelle at Crafting Sanctuary, Melissa at Elemental Stitches,Patti at Patti's Purling Place, and because I think his list would be really funny, Jason at jasoncrane.org.
Tulips from the Public Market. Not only beautiful, but fragrant as well. Makes the whole house smell amazing.
High-schoolers on the Genesee River.
Crew teams doing their thing.
College students with frisbees.
While the fire alarm, undoubtedly pulled as a prank, blares from one of the fraternity houses across the river.
All from my short bike ride after work today.
...is that they will ask you if you actually accomplished them.
I told colleagues, friends, kids, Team RocBike that I was planning to do my 45 mile bike ride over Thanksgiving weekend. All week, I've been watching the weather forecast, so that I could go on a relatively warm and dry day. Today was forecast to be in the mid-40's and mostly sunny. Perfect!
I woke up this morning with the sniffles, but not to be deterred, T. and I set out. We headed out to the Erie Canal Trail in Fairport, with the plan to bike to Newark and back, until we reached the magic number.
Don't we look cheery and optimistic?
The first 10 miles felt pretty good. By then, I had removed a lot my cold weather gear (fleece, gloves, hat, and sleeves off the biking jacket.) I was very comfortable, in terms of the weather. However, the terrain was not what I expected...(wet) crushed cinders. I expected the cinders, but hadn't considered the effect of the recent wet weather on the surface. At times it felt like I was biking in sand. You can see the mud that's splashed up on my bike (along with the remnants of Thanksgiving's snow).
I caught up with Tanya munching on her apple at Palmyra's Aqueduct Park.
When I told her that we were 1/4 of the way done (the odometer read 11.73), she uttered some words from which I will spare you. She hated biking on the surface we were on. What's more, when we did the math, we realized that we were going quite a bit slower than usual (I was biking about 60-75% of my usual MPH), and that there was no way we could get to Newark and back to the car before nightfall. Not wanting to bike after dark on the unlighted canal, since we both have headlights more useful for being seen by others than illuminating darkness, we came up with Plan B. Bike back to Fairport, have lunch there, then bike on to Genesee Valley Park, on a paved portion of the trail, and BACK to Fairport to the 45-mile mark.
Well, that seemed reasonable. We even biked a bit on the road just to give ourselves a break from the cinders. But here's another thing we didn't consider...the wind. That was the one thing that hadn't seemed perfect about the weather forecast, predicting gusts 15-20 MPH. I didn't think it would be too bad, but we were biking right into it. The last 6 miles to Fairport felt like twice that.
When I started out, I had told myself that if I started to feel like I was really making myself sick (since I had the sniffles), that I would stop. Those last 6 miles, I was feeling pretty achy. When I got to Fairport Village Coffee...
T. was already ensconced with a cup of coffee. We ordered some veggie chili and a portabella panini, plus I got myself a ginger soy decaf latte (all were excellent, by the way). And then we both agreed that we were done for the day. We would have had to really push it to finish before dark. It made me feel a little better that she, the stronger and faster athlete, was achy and tired, too. She had just biked her usual 20-mile route yesterday and had felt fine. We could only guess that the combination of the terrain and wind, quite frankly, were just more than we were ready for, given the time we had given ourselves to complete the ride.
But you know what? It's okay...I have till next May. I wanted to do it now, because I know it will be harder to get out on my bike over the winter months, and I've been cycling quite a bit this fall. But this will be incentive to keep in shape and keep biking! Considering that, until I set myself this challenge, biking 8 miles was about as much as I was willing to push myself, and then only in warm weather, I feel okay about it. It will happen! Can't you tell by the look on my face, at 24.24 miles?
(Cross-posted at RocBike, because some days I just can't decide between the two!)
On the RocBike podcasts, Jason refers to me as the "knitting cyclist." Actually, I should write that as the "Knitting cyclist." Note the capital "K." There are knitters who knit more than me, knit better than me, have knit for longer than me. But that doesn't mean they are a Knitter. Knitting with a capital "K" means you have a Knitting Identity. Inevitably, you have gone through the painful stages of:
--questioning (will my family still accept me as a Knitter?);
--isolation and reaching out to community (where can I meet other Knitters like me?);
--acceptance (okay, I'm a Knitter, now what?);
--coming out and proud (I knit wherever and whenever I please, damn it, and you will just have to deal with it! This phase also often includes the procurement and display of various knitting-related tools, jewelry, and bumper stickers); and
--identity synthesis (yes, I'm a Knitter, but I'm also many other things...don't fence me in).
Today it occurred to me that I may be in the process of becoming a Commuting Cyclist. I needed to run some errands, which could have been done quite easily by bike. But it was a bit rainy, I was tired and pressed for time, and I thought, "Oh, what the heck. I do my part to save the planet. Today I want to drive!"
Wouldn't you know, while in Abundance Co-op, I ran into Jack, still with his helmet on. Oh, the shame!
But it was more than shame that sparked this realization of a newly-forming identity. On the drive home, I really did wish that I had biked. It would have been so easy, it wasn't raining that hard, and the fresh air would have helped me wake up.
I see some more bumper stickers in my future. Do you think they make any that say "Knitting Cyclist"?
(Cross-posted at RocBike)
--Biking with others makes you feel more empowered on the road and gets you more respect from drivers.
Here's Team RocBike (and friend Liz Henderson) after our Saturday morning ride to Rochester's Public Market.
--Wind Chill isn't just a stat that the TV meteorologists (who take an approach to weather that can only be described as "weather as horror flick") came up with to scare us into watching their forecasts (and accompanying ads).
I left the house this afternoon in 50 degree weather, with only Lycra tights (yes, I do own Lycra, but in my defense it was purchased in the 1980's...and although in perfectly good shape, is in the fashion of the 80's), a tank top, and a cycling jacket. When I stepped outside it was downright temperate. When I started biking, I realized it was a bit windy. My uncovered ears and fingertips were FREEZING! Next time, I'll make sure the extremities are well-protected.
--Give the bike a good once-over every time you ride.
That would be a picture of my rear reflector caught between my back tire and my frame. It came off during today's ride. I was in a rocky area, and I thought maybe I had a rock caught in the spokes. All of a sudden I couldn't move AT ALL. Had that happened in traffic or going downhill...yikes. Major wipeout.
--It's all about the gear.
I finally got some Power Grips (and new pedals) put on my bike by the good people at Full Moon Vista, along with a new helmet, which is much more comfortable and lightweight. So much more comfortable for head and toe.
--Brighton has a new park! I accessed it off the Erie Canalway Trail, just east of Clinton Avenue.
I took DD and DS to many soccer games at Meridian Centre Park, back in the day. They've recently added a trail and boardwalk system (still under construction, I believe) through wetlands adjacent to the fields. Note to soccer and baseball parents: This would be a great place to explore in between games.
--I can't get enough of nature this fall...I find the colors intensely inspiring. I think someone famous already said this, but it seems to me that art is just our inadequate way of trying to capture the inherent beauty (including the starkness of decay and death, soon to come) of the natural world around us.
--Crows start their pre-roosting activity as early as 3:45 pm this time of the year. (That's when they start to gather to fly to their roosting site, where they will sleep for the night.) There's a reason that Halloween decorations always conjure images of crows. This is the time of year, after families have been raised, that they begin gathering in flocks at night. Pay attention the next time you notice a bunch of crows gathering. The noise coming from a large group of crows is quite impressive.
--And one thing I learned, thanks to our car. Sometimes driving is worth it. We drove out to Wayne County to see a Rufous Hummingbird, a bird whose typical region is the Western U.S., who's strayed way off its path. It looked cold!
(Cross-posted at Rocbike)
I’ve been cycling off and on since forever, but when I started working within two miles of my home, two years ago, I began to bike more frequently. It seemed ridiculous to get in my car and contribute to the melting ice caps, all to go a distance that I could get to just as quickly on bike as by car. That led to running errands, visiting friends, going food shopping, all on bike. Since my 45th year challenge, I’ve stepped up the cycling even more. It all started when Pat from the Rochester Bicycling Club wished me a happy birthday, and suggested that I should bike my age in miles.
I thought, I can do that…in fact, I probably could have done it that day (which was my 44th birthday), but it undoubtedly would have hurt. I’m going for the low-pain ride…so, in addition to the daily cycling, I’m going for longer and longer rides on the weekends. My goal is to do the 45-miler over Thanksgiving weekend.
But there are other reasons that keep me biking, beyond the first motivation of cutting my carbon footprint and the second of celebrating this turning point year, in which I can finally feel myself relaxing into the sheer unpredictability of life.
I keep biking because it connects me to my neighborhood, my community. For example, I take night classes at the University of Rochester, also only two miles from my home. Most of my classmates (like me) are full-time employees and part-time students. They say that they don’t really feel that connected to the graduate program, because they drive in and drive out, often in darkness…straight from the parking lot to the classroom, and back again.
On the other hand, I bike up Mt. Hope Avenue, alongside the Genesee River, past the UR tennis courts and apartments, past the library, and behind the academic quad to my classroom. On this ride I think often of my former father-in-law, now gone for fifteen years, who worked at UR for many years. When I first met him, he gave me a tour of the campus and told me its history. I’ve forgotten most of it, but I do remember that where the campus stands was once a golf course. I often picture that golf course and think fondly of him, one of the most loving and ethical people I have ever met.
On Halloween, I saw undergrads in costume heading out for the night on the UR bus, graduate students in the library (probably oblivious to the fact that it was Halloween), and on the way back, I biked parallel with another student heading from campus to our neighborhood. (Actually, I passed her going up the hill on McLean, and since she was half my age, this made me quite pleased with myself.)
It really does make me feel connected to be on my bike, instead of ensconced and climate-controlled in a car. And to be perfectly honest, there’s nothing like bike commuting to give you that slight, “I’m so cool AND I’m doing the right thing” tinge of self-righteousness. I might be overtaken by the self-righteousness if I weren’t having so much fun noticing the changing of the seasons and feeling the strength in my body that comes from propelling yourself rather than letting a motor do it.
And speaking of strength, I’m also noticing a huge leap in my strength and endurance. My 20-mile bike ride last weekend felt like nothing, even without padded bike shorts! (For more on the significance of that last detail, see Hubris.)
As the weather turns cold, I’m wondering if I can maintain this level of cycling throughout the winter. For one thing, I have to dress “professionally” for my job, and carrying the layers of clothing needed to change into, along with the layers I’ll need to wear, feels like a bit much. For another, money put into the current bike to outfit it for winter is money that can’t go towards an XtraCycle next year! I’m counting on the RocBike community to give me the right tips and help me keep the motivation to keep it up!
While I generally try to compose a somewhat coherent post, complete with relevant pictures, I am still feeling rather pathetic, and a list format is about all I can muster.
1. I lost a part of a tooth today. This is not good news. A crown and possible root canal, along with other unsavory-sounding dental procedures, may be required. This is also not good news for our unfinished porch, as the money allocated for the outside of the house may have to go to the inside of my mouth. At least they broke the news gently at the dentist's office...I think they feared, justifiably, a meltdown on my part.
2. In better news, I am working on some argyle-related patterns for Rocbike. First, some ear-warmers. However, as best I can figure out, the decreases would make a knitted-in argyle pattern pretty tough. So my newest idea is to knit them in a solid color (probably dark brown, the dominant color in the Rocbike argyle), then use duplicate stitch to add a diamond, argyle-ish pattern in the widest section. Knitters, what do you think? any other thoughts, suggestions?
3. I'm also working on a design for a felted cover for the deck of Jason's Packet Boat, his super-cool commuting/grocery shopping/kid-carrying bike. It will be argyle of course. I figure if it's felted it will be pretty rain resistant. I'm excited about getting to work on that, as well, and am positive I'll meet Jason's deadline of completing it within the next 50-60 years. Again, knitters, any general argyle-knitting suggestions? I've knit intarsia plenty of times, and I have a good article from Interweave, but I'd still love any tips from you more experienced argyle-knitters (hint, hint, Molly!)
4. According to Blogger help, there is no way for me to automatically reply to your comments individually. So whenever you post a comment, I will first go to your Blogger profile (if you have one) to see if I can get your email. Otherwise, unless you include your email address in your comment, I will respond to you in the comment thread for that post. Make sense?
Okay, I'm gonna go try to make my mouth feel a little better. Next post will be more coherent (and probably interesting!), I promise!
p.s. Oh, and I feel like all the cool kids are going to Rhinebeck this weekend. Wish I could go!
I am having quite the stressful week, so all I can muster now are some scenes from a bike ride a couple of weekends ago where I took the Genesee Riverway Trail through Genesee Valley Park, and on to the Genesee Greenway Trail. The pictures are all from miles 0-2 of the Greenway.
And, since I'm photographing and painfully documenting all my UFO's on Ravelry, here are some shots of things long ago begun and never finished.
Well, they're not finished, but they're still kind of pretty. I think I feel a little better now.
So...in case you haven't noticed (and why not??)...I'm half way to two of my three goals.
I have 21 projects (okay, that's not quite half, but close enough!) and many more under progress.
Signs of fall-inspired socks and cross-stitch.
The projects have slowed down a bit, but I'm working on a couple argyle-licious designs for Rocbike. Stay tuned as more will be revealed!
I'm also preserving a TON of food, but I'm not counting it as a project unless I picked AND preserved it!
The flowers keep coming, especially the dahlias, zinnias, and now, Jerusalem artichokes.
And I've been LOVING fall, and spending it with some of my favorite young people (and their parents, of whom I'm also a big fan!)
And two weekends ago I rode for twenty-two miles up the Genesee Riverway Trail to Lake Ontario. (For a fuller description of this trail, see the first ever RocBike podcast!)
I hope to do the retreat sometime in the winter, so I need to get my meditation mojo (I think that's an oxymoron) working.
Some people are sneaky...like Jason...a little while ago, he asked me if I would write a "guest essay" for his fairly new site, RocBike.
Now, this was shortly after I started my own little blog here, and I was heady with the prospect of being "published" at not one, but two (!) websites. So of course I said yes.
Then, about a month later, Jason asked if I would write another. Well, how could I deny him? However, this time I took quite a bit longer to produce, the sheen of celebrity having rubbed off somewhat.
Jason, being sneaky, sent me an extremely witty email, asking could I please, pretty please, submit my essay. The combination of wit and flattery gets me every time, so I promised him, and even gave myself a deadline.
The next thing I know, I am being asked for a bio and a photo, I've been added as a member of "Team RocBike" and now have posting privileges!
What's more, Adam came up with a new look for the site, and can you believe it, it's ARGYLE!
Obviously, this is another sneaky way of sucking me into their cycling conspiracy...for heaven's sake, anyone knows that a knitter, upon seeing argyle, is going to be compelled to design some bike-related accessory with said argyle pattern.
Clearly they are teaming up against me to make sure that I neglect work, family, graduate school, and my OWN site, all with the plan of drawing me into the world of the cycling blog-o-sphere.
I admit, I am powerless against their sneakiness.
I had some great bike rides on Cape Cod, back in early August, including the Province Lands dunes...
and the Cape Cod Rail Trail, where I saw this cormorant on the line by a pond.
and one not so great heading in to Provincetown...here's the infamous intersection...
Check out RocBike for the back story.
