Back to bicycles
Aug. 13th, 2007 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkOnce I got into blogging the Fringe, everything else kind of dropped off the radar screen. However, I have been biking through all of this, even managing to do the Bike2Work thing at least once a week (if you have to travel home right at rush hour, riding a bike doesnt really take much longer than driving, as it turns out. Normally I don't even think about driving home until at least 6:30, and now I remember why!).
Anyway, I had all kinds of biking fun this past week, along with some biking annoyances.
MOST FUN
1) Biking to the Ritz to see Tom Thumb. It had been a hot day, but the sunset time frame was just lovely. It was bike path most of the way, with beautiful views of the downtown skyline. First half was pleasantly familiar - Midtown Greenway to Hiawatha Line path to West Bank. Then I had the excitement of beating a path through unknown territory. Turns out there's an easy-peasey route from the West Bank to downtown - just continue over the freeway on the Hiawatha Line bridge, turn right on 11th Ave and in 3 short blocks you're back to the River Road trail, north of the collapsed bridge. It's a little bit choked with gawkers at the moment, but that eases up past the Stone Arch Bridge. There's an easy spiral ramp up from the bike path to the Hennepin Bridge, which is a very fun bridge to ride over. I wasn't quite sure what to do when I hit the other side, but I just turned left onto Old Main Street, right on 3rd Avenue NE, and then up a surprisingly deserted University Ave to 13th. It turned out to be a little further than I'd expected (8 miles) but I met up with Richard who took me home in the van.
2) Biking to the *ahem* Circle of Discipline on Thursday night for "The Most Mysterious Day of the Year." (To my relief, Circle of Discipline turned out to be a sort of new-agey gym rather than a fetish shop.) Another hot hot day giving way to a relatively cool evening, flying down the Midtown past the old Sears Building. Something happened to my legs last week; after 3-1/2 months of constant biking with no particular improvement, I was suddenly way stronger. Richard kept yelling at me to slow down, and I kept insisting that we must be going downhill because I normally can't bike that fast (14-15 mph). But the same thing happened on the way back, and it couldn't have been downhill both ways.
3) Biking home from work on Friday at top speed (see above), and making it to Bryant Lake Bowl just in time to order a beer before the performance. My overall average speed was still only 11.7 mph, but I used to have to struggle to make an average of 10.0. I really was going 14mph on the paved path, but there's a lot of other stuff involved in that route that slows me down.
ANNOYANCES
Not one, but TWO flat tires in a week. Not only flat, but unfixably flat. For some reason, I just couldn't get the tire patches to stick tight. Tried three different tire repair kits, and it just wasn't working. So I bought a new inner tube which is, I think, defective. The first hole may have been caused by a tiny piece of glass left in my tire from the first flat, but once I blew up the tire to try to patch it, new holes started appearing spontaneously. Bah. I guess I need a new bike.
Oh, wait! I just bought one!
Anyway, I had all kinds of biking fun this past week, along with some biking annoyances.
MOST FUN
1) Biking to the Ritz to see Tom Thumb. It had been a hot day, but the sunset time frame was just lovely. It was bike path most of the way, with beautiful views of the downtown skyline. First half was pleasantly familiar - Midtown Greenway to Hiawatha Line path to West Bank. Then I had the excitement of beating a path through unknown territory. Turns out there's an easy-peasey route from the West Bank to downtown - just continue over the freeway on the Hiawatha Line bridge, turn right on 11th Ave and in 3 short blocks you're back to the River Road trail, north of the collapsed bridge. It's a little bit choked with gawkers at the moment, but that eases up past the Stone Arch Bridge. There's an easy spiral ramp up from the bike path to the Hennepin Bridge, which is a very fun bridge to ride over. I wasn't quite sure what to do when I hit the other side, but I just turned left onto Old Main Street, right on 3rd Avenue NE, and then up a surprisingly deserted University Ave to 13th. It turned out to be a little further than I'd expected (8 miles) but I met up with Richard who took me home in the van.
2) Biking to the *ahem* Circle of Discipline on Thursday night for "The Most Mysterious Day of the Year." (To my relief, Circle of Discipline turned out to be a sort of new-agey gym rather than a fetish shop.) Another hot hot day giving way to a relatively cool evening, flying down the Midtown past the old Sears Building. Something happened to my legs last week; after 3-1/2 months of constant biking with no particular improvement, I was suddenly way stronger. Richard kept yelling at me to slow down, and I kept insisting that we must be going downhill because I normally can't bike that fast (14-15 mph). But the same thing happened on the way back, and it couldn't have been downhill both ways.
3) Biking home from work on Friday at top speed (see above), and making it to Bryant Lake Bowl just in time to order a beer before the performance. My overall average speed was still only 11.7 mph, but I used to have to struggle to make an average of 10.0. I really was going 14mph on the paved path, but there's a lot of other stuff involved in that route that slows me down.
ANNOYANCES
Not one, but TWO flat tires in a week. Not only flat, but unfixably flat. For some reason, I just couldn't get the tire patches to stick tight. Tried three different tire repair kits, and it just wasn't working. So I bought a new inner tube which is, I think, defective. The first hole may have been caused by a tiny piece of glass left in my tire from the first flat, but once I blew up the tire to try to patch it, new holes started appearing spontaneously. Bah. I guess I need a new bike.
Oh, wait! I just bought one!
