I’m An Award-Winning Biker!

They are some sort of dog contest ribbons from wikkicommons.  Whatever, I still won.

Hey Blog fans, I’ll have to change my blog banner from “CR Biker” to “Award-Winning CR Biker.”

Mount Mercy University, the place where I nap and sometimes work, had a “bike to work” promotion this week, which was national bike-to-work week.

As part of the promotion, you could register each day for a drawing for a $25 gift card to a local bike shop.

And I won!  Hooray!  I’ll have to go there and scope out some bike bling for RAGBRAI.  I am looking for a rear rack of some sort, and maybe a frame pump.  Doubt that $25 will pay for both, but heck, it’s a start.

The MMU group was to meet today and bike to a restaurant.  Sadly, I could not be there, due to a department luncheon meeting.

But, thanks anyway, I gladly accept my award.  Bike on!

This One Goes Out To The Ones Who’re Gone

Well, I missed the “Ride of Silence.”  Too much grading in silence and other chores, such as delivering a candidate for a teaching job to a motel and then rehearsing bell ringing for graduation, for me to participate.

The ride was an event held in downtown Cedar Rapids this evening to remember and honor those who have been hurt or who died while bicycling, and to remind motorists to share the road.

Now, if someone on a bike dies, it may be a health problem.  Biking is prime time for heart attacks (even though, of course, it also prevents heart disease).  And when a biker is hit by a motorized vehicle, it’s not a given that the motorist is at fault, although, it is a given that, because of physics, it behooves the motorist to take care.  I’m no threat to the angry yahoos in pickups who shoot me dirty looks, but they can be a threat to me.

Anyway, I just wanted to note that I was there in spirit.  I hope the ride went well.  I hope any motorists in the area were at least respectful.

And then, to lighten the mood, here is a picture of the biking angel, a cheerful cherub who is always ready for a bike ride: my grandson Tristan seen recently at play in my living room.  By the way, we have a large tub of play clothes, from which these items were selected by Mr. T himself.  I think he does look like the biker guardian angel, does he not?

Biking To Work In A Bronze-Star City

My bike in a bike rack at work.

 

My bike looks a little lonely, doesn’t it?  It’s in a bike rack at Mount Mercy University behind Warde Hall, the main administrative building of campus.—all alone on a sunny summerlike morning during “bike to work” week.

I wish there were more bikers here.  It would be nice if I had some competition for the prime parking spot in the Warde Hall rack.  Then again, I know many people live too far away and don’t have the option of riding.

This week, Cedar Rapids earned a “bronze” designation as a bike-friendly city.  The city has targeted steps it can take to extend trails, mark lanes and otherwise make Cedar Rapids a better biking environment.

Bravo.  The more bike-friendly a place is, the more livable, and usually pedestrian friendly it is.  Audrey and I walked on the CENMAR trail near MMU recently—it will be much more useful to bikers when it ties into other trails in the future, but for now it’s already a pleasant place to stroll.

In a time of increasing waistlines and healthcare costs skyrocketing, partly due to preventable, obesity-related conditions, public policies that promote literal people power are all for the best.

I think Cedar Rapids deserves recognition.  I think pedestrian-bike friendliness needs to be more embedded in street designs, but recent project have definitely helped this bike commuter.  Last week, I had to meet other faculty members at a Northeast restaurant located in the Lindale Mall area.  I was worried about getting there, but didn’t realize that sidewalks and walk signs had been extended in the area, and crossing Collins Road and First Avenue turned out to be a non-event.  Well, cool.

Now, for those of you who might want to point out that I should not have been riding on the sidewalk, some of you also complain that bikes block or delay traffic on streets.  You can’t have it both ways—if you don’t want bikes on busy streets, they are relegated to the sidewalk.  And on certain streets—where there are more than two lanes of traffic, where the speed limit is 35 mph or higher—I refuse to ride on the street, but I don’t refuse to ride.  If I’m on the sidewalk, I must also remember that I have to signal to and yield to pedestrians—the sidewalk belongs to them, just as I expect cars to watch out for me on quite streets, where it makes more sense for me to ride on the main thoroughfare.

Anyway, back on track, such as it is.  It’s nice the Cedar Rapids earned the bronze rating.  Now, get our there and ride and fill up those MMU bike racks!

Slowing Down or Speeding Up to 3-3 Gear

My bike, parked at MMU.  Yes, that big rear gear is, these days, my start-up gear.  I'm using a slower gear, but I hope I'm riding faster.

I’m slowing down and, I hope, speeding up.

I’m never going to be one of the faster bikers on the road.  Too many young gazelles with good road bikes are out there—I’m a big, pokey, slow, old man on a hybrid bike not built or meant for speed (and I’m talking about both the bike and I).

I’m looking forward, a bit over a week from now, when this frantic spring semester has finally ended and I can get into to some serious RAGBRAI training, to more riding.  I feel that I was riding more last year, but I was more in fear of RAGBRAI then, too.  Still, last year’s ride definitely convinced me that that I can’t over-prepare, and I’ll be serious soon about getting in lots and lots of miles.

But my gearing has changed.  A year or so after I bought my current bike, when leaving the bike shop where I had some service done, the mechanic mentioned that he had seem me ride off in the wrong gear.  I usually used the fastest gear as my default one—old, bad habit from my youth, and he said to me that starting in that gear was harder on both me and my bike.

I think of that gear as 1-7—largest cog (1) in front, smallest cog (7) in back.  After thinking about it, I decided he knew bikes better than I did, and so I dedicated myself to using 2-5 as my start-up gear.

And I am sure he was right.  It was much more relaxing to begin in that gear.

This year, I got a new chain, and once that was installed, my rear derailleur didn’t want to start in 5—it “chunked” in that gear, so I began to start in 3-4 rather than 2-5.  Lately, I’ve switched to 3-3.

I noticed last year on RAGBRAI that many bikers who passed me were using gear 3 or 4 in the rear—they were rarely in “fast” gear.  Their leg speed was simply faster than mine.

Now, again, I can’t and don’t want to treat RAGBRAI as a race.  At my age and condition, that would just be setting me up for stress and depression.  Still, I’m lowering my gear.

Am I upping my speed?  Don’t know for sure—my on-again, off-again computer is “off,” for now.  I feel a bit faster, but then again, old ladies still frequently pass me on trail.

Well, we’ll see.  Life in 3-3 seems to suit me just fine.

Well, Blog Fans, Peonies Are Here!

I had a little time to kill before leaving home this morning, due to riding to the KGAN studio rather than MMU campus for my first class.  This isn't really from the morning ride-it's a clematis from my back yard--but it looks pretty in the morning light and is from this flowery day.  It will have to stand in for the missing peonies!

On the morning ride today, I saw more evidence of the Apocalypse or signs that global warming might be a socialist fantasy.

Peonies are in bloom in Cedar Rapids.  Not in my yard, which due to its shady nature, is always a bit behind, and I was in a hurry, so I didn’t snap any photos along my commute to prove it, but there was a nice line of traditional pink peonies blooming away between KGAN, where I stopped for a morning tour, and campus.

Yeah, it’s nice to see the peonies. More signs that The World Is Coming To An End?  The colorful, later irises are in full bloom along my commute route, too.  Both seem more like late May, early June flowers.(By the way, while none of the iris that I planted last fall seems to have come up--typical--the "Iris Witch" who cursed my gardens didn't curse my sister Cate's gardens.  Three clumps of iris that I transplanted from her yard last year have flower buds.)

Course, if we can stay a month ahead, RAGBRAI won’t be too bad, because we’ll be having end-of-August weather rather than end of July weather.

Somehow, I don’t think it works that way.  If we’re a month ahead now, we’ll be a month behind in October, and July might be more than I’m used to.

Oh well, it was hot last year and I didn’t melt.

It’s clouding up and rain is possible.  I hope it holds off.  But the morning ride was cool and pleasant.

And full of flowers.

Dodging Rain During A Very Wet Week

Bike on damp driveway before wet Wednesday ride.  Rhododendron from the same morning, encouraged to bloom by our wet, warm Iowa weather.

The photo of my bike is from Wednesday morning.  It rained through the night, and was raining early, but had ended by the time I rode.

It was the kind of week when it rained practically every night, and yet I was still able to bike each day.  The wet Wednesday morning even featured damp, but pretty, flowers in my yard.

It looks like June.  In a Flickr photo gallery of images I took today, there are blooming bachelor buttons, even a cone flowers, not in bloom yet, but looking close.  This summer flower is likely to be blooming in May.  It looks more like summer than spring today in Iowa.

Well, I hope the wet weather eases soon.  Despite the rainy week, our creek isn’t overfull, so the ground must have been pretty dry when this mini-monsoon started.  May it end before the ground is soaked.

One of my biker friends noted on her Facebook page that she had taken a Thursday night ride, and discovered that lightning made her blow out all of her old MPH records.

Well, I’ve been luckier than that.  It was cloudy this morning, but the wet smelled of lilac and honeysuckle.  This evening, I biked to a Thai restaurant to meet some other professors for supper.  The sky was mottled and ugly coming home—but dry.

And that’s about as good as it gets this week.

How I Feel About Winning the Lottery

Well, the RAGBRAI lottery anyway.  It’s not quite as lucrative as Power Ball, but still …

Well, blog fans, drum roll please. Today was the day the Register announced the results of its lottery for week-long riders in RAGBRAI, and I’m (tarum tum pitty-pat tarum) in.

Gulp.

So, again, your correspondent will be riding more than 400 miles across the state of Iowa in the hottest part of a Midwest summer in a time of global warming. It’s the 18^th shortest and 11^th flattest, with a tad over 16,000 feet of climb and just a smidge over 471 miles. I don’t know what that will translate to in terms of volume of sweat or gallons of electrolyte drink consumed, but it’ll be a lot.

It must a good idea, or why would more than 8,000 lottery winners do it?

Sure, you can comment and answer, but it’s too late now, I’m in.

There’s still time for day riders to register for RAGBRAI, by the way. You don’t HAVE to register, but I think it’s a good practice for several reasons.  Registering gives you a wristband that gets you places where others have to pay to go. You are eligible for sag wagon services. And, you’re paying a fee to support the overall event that you’re participating in, which feels better to me than just showing up.

Anyway, I won’t really focus much on RAGBRAI for several weeks. I have to finish the spring semester at MMU, first.  I hope the MMU riders will do some regular practice riding this summer, but I certainly will be trying to pile on the training miles to get my aging body ready for this ordeal.

But, I honestly don’t have much anxiety about it.  Last year, it was an unknown. This year is my second time around.

I’m not ready, yet. But by late July, I can cycle those 1,000 practice miles. I can be ready.

RAGBRAI, here I come!