Bike-to-Work Week, Day Three – Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Anticipating the exact same ride down the exact same streets, I wanted to mix things up a bit… to truly make this week a study in the feasibility of riding my bike to work on a more regular basis (though, I’d likely max out at just once a week anyway, seeing as I have to pick up one or the other of my daughters from dance or swimming after work four days a week).

 

Today’s ride to work was different in the following ways:

1. Breakfast: Today, I ate some.
2. Clothes: Yesterday, it was t-shirt, sweatpants (brrr!), windbreaker, bike socks, and bike shoes, with the backpack loaded with jeans, work shirt, “normal” socks, and sneakers, plus shorts and another t-shirt for the ride home. Today, it was t-shirt, jeans, normal socks, and bike shoes, with the backpack carrying two work shirts and my sneakers. I carried two shirts in case the lighter of the two was a wrinkle-fest. Both came out of the bag fine, so I left one of them at work for tomorrow. I was desperately missing the shorts for the trip home, so I’ll add those back tomorrow. All-in-all, it worked out pretty well.
3. Route: I added the extra 0.6 miles through Argonne Hills to again avoid some hills and some traffic. I may have added some time, but it also added peace-of-mind.

The ride home was a bit different too:

1. Delayed: After work today, there was a Bike-to-Work Week gathering at a nearby bistro (which, oddly enough, used to be a bicycle shop). As I usually ride solo, I thought it might be interesting to connect with some local riders, and so I went, intending to chat for 15-20 minutes and then head home for dinner. An hour later (oops), I called Shannon and let her know I’d be a bit later than usual and got back on track for home.
2. A little crazy: Seeing that the traffic was lighter than yesterday (because it was later than yesterday… duh!), and since I was late for dinner, I decided to be a little crazy… from Leon Street to Carver Street, I sprinted down Duke Street (four lanes, 40mph) as fast as I could in the empty gaps between the groups of cars created by the traffic signals (i.e. light turns red, traffic on Duke Street stops, I turn into the now-empty street and go as fast as I can until the cars catch up and I pull over, waiting for the next red light gap). It was fun, and likely faster than my pace yesterday, but not so much so in either case that I would want to do it again. Been there, done that, moving on.

Tomorrow, now that I’ve seen the quality of the roads on the route, I’m gonna change it up again by riding my road bike instead of my mountain bike. Should be a bit faster… we’ll find out tomorrow…