My computer has been acting up so I have been typing things I want to blog in word doc's and waiting for my internet to work to post them. Here are the first three bike rides I've taken in 2006.1st Bike Ride, 31 MarThe first time I took the bike out this year was just to ride to Leroy's for a cup of coffee. The sun was pretty and it was a very warm 35 degrees. Stuff was melting and I had high hopes for the trend to continue. Charging up Fairbanks St was a tough knock to my lungs. Smoking had finally taken it's heaviest toll. After five years of inhaling tar and other bad guys enough damage has been done. It's been a limfac in the past, but riding up that hill spitting up mud and thumb taks, I decided it was finally time to kick the habbit for good. Of course, once at Leroy's with my puzzles, pens, coffee and notebooks, the urges came on strong and I didn't resist them. I smoked. On the ride home, which was principally down hill, I rode to the bottom of the Valley of the Moon and rode home back on Chester Creek Greenbelt. The trail was still covered in snow and ice. I managed very well in the slow technical riding, but after only a 1/4 mile (already home) was so winded that I nearly collapsed from carrying the bike back up the stairs. When I saw my ZZ next, I discussed quiting smoking with her and she said she was fully ready to encourage any effort I made.
2nd Bike Ride, 12 AprI quit smoking! Today is Day #12 and I already feel better. It's hard, but seriously, it's been worth it. Today's short ride was all the proof to myself that I needed. I rode with Ian Geroux, a fellow from work. I have mixed feelings about Ian when it comes to friendship, but he's the only person I know that wanted to ride. He busted out his old KSA (or something) took it to Paramount last week and had the wheel replaced and a general tune up. He said he has not riden his bike since he lived in Utah (that was two years ago.) I rode a fair amount last summer with Double O, but Ian quit smoking years and years ago. I figured we'd be on a level playing ground when it came to our endourance. We rode from his place to John's Road on the south side of Anchorage. I forgot the name of the trail we took, but it was still covered in ice and snow and slush. We stuck to the roads most of the time. It was an interesting ride mostly because I had never been in that neighborhood (West on Klatt Rd.) At the far point in the ride, I took my bike down the steep cliffs to the Cook Inlet. Ian didn't follow, he's not confident in his down hill riding just yet. I had to carry my bike back up the steep hill the moment I got down there because there was nowhere to go. The view was nice though; one I'm not used to seeing of the Inlet. The long dead brown grass poking up at the water's edge thought the snow and ice, no melted water yet visible in that area. The mountains and Fire Island stretching from end to end. After our ride I loaded my bike on the back on my car and took it to Paramount. They made some adjustments on my shifting but after a test ride, I was still having problems with slipping gears. I had them replace the rear cassette. Perfect! No more slipping. I also bought some lube. The KY and Kama Sutra we have in the bedroom doesn't work well on bike chains.
3rd Bike Ride, 13 AprThough we only rode an hour yesterday, I was still a little tight today, but I couldn't pass up an golden opportunity to ride! It's so gorgous today, and warm! 38 degrees! Nice blue skies, a few scattered wisps of clouds. I dropped my cleaning project and hit the trails. It's a good thing I wore my helmet today. It saved my ass. No, I didn't biff while riding. I biffed while WALKING! Ya ya ya. Laugh it up, but I think I have a good excuse. I was riding around in the trees behind my apartment and got bogged down in a foot of that hard crystalized snow. I picked up the bike and headed for higher ground. There's a built up hill in forest with a mini dirt trail that parallels Chester Creek (we've all had a ride on that hill before, but I don't know how to describe it better for you) and on my way up the hill, I noticed that the dirt was still frozen. The snow was gone, but there was still icy mud beneath the fragile grass. I was stuck so I had to move. My feet slipped out, I landed on my face (hands bogged down in bike parts, and I slipped down the hill hard muddying up my belly and cracking my left knee on the icy hill. My handle bars came down on the back of my head, but it didn't hurt because I was wearing my protective head gear today! After that I found a better way out of the area and as I was riding towards pavement my front tire suddenly sunk though the snow, halting my progress on a dime. My left foot went down to brace against a slow fall and it punched through to the lake of icy cold ass water beneath the snow.Shoes soaked, socks soaked, foot frozen. A few moments later, it happened again and I soaked my right foot. GAA! At least they were even then. I finally made it out to the Chester Creek Greenbelt and rode on the groomed ice of the trail. Plows have gone across all the paved trails in town to accelerate the melting process, but there was still a lot of ice on the trail. But that's much easier to ride on when slush and crystalized snow covers it. However, it's still extremely taxing. It felt like I was riding a bike with two flat tires over the oldest and brokenest side walk in America. I rode out to the coastal trail and into downtown. Hills! Oh my goodness. I am so out of shape it's not very funny. It's nice though, because I only saw two or three other bikers out there already. I obvously need the head start. It's also obvious that drivers aren't accostomed to watching out for bikes yet. There would have been a lot of close calls with traffic if I haddn't been extremely vigilant. This one Korean fucker pulled out right in front of me in a parking lot, driving WAY TOO fast. I missed him barely, came close enough to stop and slap his back window. I wanted to chase after him and scream at him all crazy and freak him out, but I was satisfied with slapping the back on his van. Wish I had a good buddy to ride with to share in these experiances.
Peace and Love,
Mungo
