Ride to Work

May is bike month. This week is bike-to-work week.

Thursday is bike-to-work day.

I'll admit here, I don't fully understand the month/week/day stuff so I rode to work on Wednesday. I just know I like the excuse to ride to work one day a year. Since a ride from Stockton to Pleasanton is about 65 miles on a bike, I will likely continue to only do this once a year.

I left the house this morning at 5:15, a little later than I was planning to. It was already pretty warm with the temperature near 60 degrees when I checked at 4:45 AM. It was warm enough that I didn't even bring arm warmers so I was happy! Having done this ride before, I had mentally prepared for a windy day. I would, after all, being riding through Tracy and Livermore. Once I turned west on Mathews road I was pleasantly surprised that there was very little wind. Last year's ride-to-work day greeted me with the worst wind I had ever faced. Not this year. I would get through the back roads of Tracy and Old Altamont road with hardly any wind. My luck came to an end when I flatted near mile 48. No complaints from me; I hadn't had a flat in about 700 miles! I made it to the office about 9:50 AM and after a quick shower was actually working.

The hardest part of riding to work is actually the work day and the ride home. Riding 130 miles is tough, only tougher with a 6-7 hour work day in between. I ate all day long, literally. I went from meeting to meeting with food and water to make sure I wouldn't bonk in the evening.

I walked out of my office about 4:15 and hit the road about 4:30. I had a pretty ugly head wind all the way to Greenville and a little bit up Old Altamont road. Riding through Tracy was strangely calm with no wind to speak of. With 30 miles to go I picked up the mental energy to make it home.

As I approached French Camp I took off my sun glasses because it was getting too dark to see. I forgot to bring a headlight and didn't bring clear lenses. I caught a few bugs in my eyes which was not as concerning as riding through some of the very dark neighborhoods in South Stockton. Next year... bring clear glasses and headlight.

After a quick stop to say hello to Fred & Flower who were in their front yard talking to the Schwann's guy I made it home at 9:30. Hey Fred, why was the Schwann's guy there so late?

Today's ride was awesome, perfect weather and I had great legs.

Stats 129.01 miles 8:03:50 on bike 15.998 miles per hour

The secret? Tell everyone you know, including the local TV station, you're going to ride in to work and home again. That way, when you feel like chickening out, you realize you can't. How would you break it to that TV station?