Its all relative

Still damn hot today but a great ride.

The peloton left SAS at 11:30 sharp as usual with about 15 members. Once on Weston the group from Bandwidth joined in and the comment was made, "they're getting as big as us." In fact they had about 10 riders today. The now much larger peloton made their way down Weston at a slower than normal pace, took the right onto Chapel Hill rd and then the left onto Morrisville-Carpenter.

That's when someone up front decided we were going too slow for a Wednesday in 92 degree weather. The speed increased dramatically and everyone fell into a single file line until we finally had to stop at the Davis Dr light. The light was quick however and cut off the back 3rd of the group. Then the unbelievable happened for this ride and the group actually held up for the rest to rejoin!!

A few more minutes and it was time for the group to split into the A and B route (30 and 20 miles). The B group was split again but ended up with 6 at the HighHouse intersection until 2 decided to go across High House and do an extra 4 mile loop. The 4 remaining headed toward Davis and couldn't agree on the route so 2 split to continue on High House and cut through Preston like normal while the others took a left for a more direct route.

Dwight and Keith made their way through Preston talking about the heat, lack of leg strength and the hills that were coming up. Since Dwight was used to being the 2nd or 3rd strongest rider in the B group, taking the lead on Morrisville Parkway was a new experience. Rather than playing catch-up on the long climb back to Chapel Hill road he got to set a high pace and dropped his companion, not seeing him again until cooling down in the gym. Will, who had taken the more "direct route" had actually been slowly catching up and finally caught Dwight as they turned onto Harrison for the last half mile into SAS.

So, Dwight finally got to drop someone, but then Will showed him that he's not really all that.

Great ride!!

The Heat is on

I was forced to run in the early AM today as the temp was going to be in mid-90's by lunch and 100 for the high.

Good run though. Used the Chatham road to the Greenway Loop for a 38 minute run. Took quite a while to cool off with all the humidity.

Tomorrow's ride will be interesting with another 95+ day.

Bike Commuting a Success

Two weeks into the summer and I've been able to ride to work 4 times. That's 64 miles I didn't put on my car and 3.5 gallons of petrol I didn't have to buy.

I'm hoping to ride in 2 days a week but I know that there will be weeks where it doesn't work out. The key is that I picked 2 days to make it my default mode of transportation, Monday's and Thursdays.

It's taking some planning as well, making sure that I bring in extra work clothes on Friday and Wednesday so I don't have to pack and wrinkle it up in a bag. I finally got a permanent locker in the gym so that I can store shoes and toiletries as well.

The other cool thing is that I'm getting 2 extra workouts a week. I decided not to change my running, weights and riding routines so on on the commute days I either run or do weights leaving my legs fresh for the hard core Wednesday and Friday lunch rides.

I'm also trying different paths in. There are only 2 tough spots on my route. The first is having to cross Maynard Road to get from the South Side of the trail to the North Side. There doesn't seem to be any natural way of getting across. Right now I have to go further down the road and do a u-turn (its a divided road) and then get back on the trail on the other side. Going to write the Town of Cary today to find out what their official, recommended route is for that trail. The other spot is getting from the trails and onto SAS campus. One route means I have to be on Harrison Rd for about a mile (4 laner with a lot of high speed traffic) the other is to stay on the trail and pass up the entrance to SAS and then go through a neighborhood that comes out a block from the entrance. Main point here is that the route from the path through the neighborhood is all UPHILL so the going is slow. This route can add 5 to 10 minutes to my 35 minute commute. For now I think I'll brave the traffic to save the time.

Heading to the bike shop today on my commute home. There's just something really cool about riding to the bike shop rather than driving. :)

- moot

Friday SAS ride

Awesome ride today. Was able to totally fly up Morrisville Parkway RR Track hill.

That hill really needs a name. Maybe I need to use a common name like Colin McEnroe did in his Bicycling Magazine article, "Fits & Starts". He called his nemesis Tucker. I might get ridiculed for it though since our hills have cool names like Upchuck, The 3 Sisters and Burn-off. :)

In the end still tired, it wouldn't be much exercise if I wasn't, but didn't have that "I think I'm going to puke" feeling that I had in the last 2 miles on Wednesday. I was almost able to keep up with the fastest guy in our group but he lulled me into a pace and then took off halfway up the last hill. :)

So in the end we did about 19 miles at over 18 mph. Not bad for a Friday lunch ride.

How to post a bike for sale on Craig's List

Just thought I'd save everyone a lot of time and hassle. If you are posting a bike for sale please include some key information. It will save you time and likely sell your bike a lot faster.

1. Include a picture in the form of a link to an external picture hosting site. This is much better quality than the little 1 by 1 you get by default. CL even tells you how to do it:http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/faq#pictures .
2. Size does matter. PLEASE put the bike size in the post. If its a kids bike, then put in the wheel size (12,16, 20,24). If its an adult size then post the size that is listed on the bike or take a quick measurement from the center of the crank (where the pedals meet the frame) to the top of the seat tube. If its a mountain bike or hybrid use inches if its a road bike use centimeters. It takes 30 seconds and saves you from a lot of questions.
3. Post the year or age of the bike if you know it. This doesn't matter as much for some bikes but for the higher end bikes the components can change a lot from one year to the next so it's important.
4. Include a link to the actual bike from the manufacturer if its available, or check BikePedia. I can't tell you how much time I wasted looking up bikes to get the specs when I was searching for my road bike. Its especially difficult if the year is not included in the post. (Try finding that one year that Trek made the Blue and silver Madone :) ).
5. Provide your contact information. If you do steps 1 to 4 you won't get as many calls because buyers will self-select themselves out of something that is not the right bike to begin with. You also increase the good calls because those buyers are truly interested, not just calling to get more details.
6. Per a suggestion from a reader, remove the listing once the bike is sold. It saves everyone time and the buyer some potential heartache when they thought they found that perfect bike.

Happy Selling!