More than a Fortnight

Summary of the past three weeks, and a summary sentence Weeks 80-82

Week 80 (May 31 - June 4)
Monday - Holiday (No commute)
Tues-Thurs - Bicycle
Friday - Vacation (No commute)

My original plan was to ride from the south end of the cities to Nora Springs, IA, but I took a look at Friday's forecast on Thursday night and it did not look amendable to spending 10+ hours on a bicycle. Plans were canceled; nevertheless, Friday's conditions proved ideal for such a ride.

Week 81
Vacation/Conference

I did not attend the "Bike Walk to Work Day" celebration in downtown Minneapolis as I was in Chicago at a conference. I did, however, participate in spirit as I walked to the conference from my hotel.

Week 82
Monday - Bicycle
Tuesday - Car & Bicycle (AM carpool)
Wed-Thurs - Bicycle
Friday - Car

I availed myself of the Minneapolis bike share program by grabbing a green machine at the government plaza station and riding to Birchwood Cafe, where I hopped off and hoofed it a mile and half home. Not ideal for an every day commute, but good in a pinch. I'll report more on the Nice Ride bikeshare program once I've had an opportunity to use it a bit more.

Miscellaneous Notes: St Paul morning ride

From this morning:

1) The round-trip ride to/from St. Paul always feels up hill both ways to me. Not sure if old age or the headwind is to blame for that cogderly observation.

2) The irony of a half-white/half-primer gray colored el camino parked in a Summit Avenue driveway was not lost on me.

3) Though not as obscene as the bandana/necktie combination, I think smoking and riding is an equally incongruous union.

Trucker Love Thursday

After near perfect weather for my ride in, I got to park my bicycle next to another Long Haul Trucker that I've mentioned before. I just hope I try unlocking the right bike this afternoon. I guess the Minneapolis Bike Love spoke card is an obvious identifier.

Weeks 78 & 79 and another confession

Week 78
Monday - Friday: Bicycle

Week 79
Monday - Thursday: Car (No carpool)
Friday: Bicycle

Confession:

I haven't always viewed riders of recumbent cycles as true bicyclists. Am I guilty of bicycle bigotry?

Generally, here's what image pops into my mind whenever I see one coming toward me on the trail:



You'll have to forgive me, I grew up in a small town and never even saw a recumbent cyclist growing up, let alone talked to one. None of my friends ride recumbents, and I don't work with anyone who rides a recumbent either. Not an excuse for my judgments, just an explanation of them.

Week 77: Mixed Bag

Week 77

The Bad
I drove a car with zero passengers all week long. I'll blame the cold, damp weather for the lack of biking from Monday through Thursday, but I have no one to blame for not getting on the bike on Friday. I was ready for the week to be done, and even though capping it off with a return trip on the bike would have been nice, it was also nice to get off a little early and be home by 4:15 instead of 5:00.

The Good
With the help of my fellow accountants, I figured out a way to configure my Blackberry to track my route and map it out on Google maps. I haven't had an odometer since my Trek got stole a few years ago, but this serves the same function. Also, it saves me from having to manually re-trace my steps as it provides automatic output to Google maps.

Check out the two longer rides I did this weekend ("Map" or "Terrain" view are best):

Saturday's Ride

Sunday's Ride

The week to come is looking good. My goal is to bike commute four out of five days, and maybe I can even get my wife to pay up on the bike commute she owes me from some random bet over a year ago.

Week 76 and a Confession

Summary:
Quite the mix of transportation modes this past week. I even borrowed a colleague's vehicle to deliver reports to a client on Thursday which doesn't show up in the log:

Monday - Vacation (No commute)
Tuesday - Car (AM & PM Commute)
Wednesday - Car & LRT (AM Commute)
Thursday - Bicycle*
Friday - Car (AM & PM Commute)

*Includes bonus cycling/accountant action as I joined five fellow auditors for a 20+ mile ride after work

Overall it was a tough week, but not because there were long hours or tight deadlines to meet. Busy season "officially" ended in late March, but this year it "unofficially" extended until the end of April. Last week was the first week that I emerged from the dense fog that was the last four months of my life, but I continued to struggle seeing clearly, let alone getting out of bed. I thought Monday's day off would recharge me and gear me up for a short week. I was wrong and I really didn't wake up until the today.

In other news, I confess that I did not prove myself to be made of ferrous metal. Only one half of the co-worker contingent made it to the Minnesota Iron Man Bike Ride, so I didn't let anybody down but Ivy.

Weeks 74 - 75

Week 74 (April 19-23)
Week 75 (April 26-30)

Sadly, I logged no bicycle commutes over the past two weeks. It was crunch time at the client I was working on, and the late nights would have made it very difficult to stay motivated to ride to and from work.

There were two bright spots in this otherwise dark stretch: I got to wear one of my favorite thrift store purchases to work on the 23rd:



If you haven't see the $5 tuxedo, the Blackberry camera really doesn't do it justice.

The other bright spot related to the results of my hypermiling endeavors, even though I was hoping for more impressive results. Overall, though, this tank was exclusively city driving, so I really can't complain with 35.6 mpg.