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cycling

cycling / Friday / IU / photo / video — Comments Off
24
Mar 17

“We’re up! We’re up!”

In the studio, you sometimes find yourself standing in just the right spot with just the right light near just the right piece of glass. I looked up and there was the jib camera, just waiting patiently to be used.

I doubt that is what the jib camera had in mind.

Yes, the cameras think of things like that. If Disney can anthropomorphize all of the animals and Pixar can animate all of the toys, why isn’t one of them doing all of that with the electronics? Especially in this great age of the Internet of Things.

Yes, I imagine it would be a prequel to the Terminator series. So?

In the studio this morning, two cyclists from the Theta team stopped by for an interview and a demonstration. They put their bikes up on rollers and then invited the morning show hosts to give it a try. It was predictable and funny and cute:

Of course I rode one of the bicycles. That means house, hotels and now the workplace. You can never ride a bike indoors enough that the novelty wears off, if you ask me.

Softball game this evening, watched the right team set all kinds of crazy runs records. (They should have us back more often as we are clearly good luck.) Barbecue tonight. A bicycle ride, outdoors this time, tomorrow. Good start to the weekend, that.

adventures / Bloomington / cycling / photo / Specialized / Tuesday — Comments Off
21
Mar 17

Tuesdays, we ride

OK, OK, I’ll stop writing about the eventual oncoming of spring. We’ll just assume that it is here. Until, that is, another cold snap comes through and drops snow or ice or both on us, and then we can all grimly shiver under four layers of blankets. But until then, spring:

I mark it because more trees are now in bloom than not. And also because the almost-warmth in the air has a sense of dedication and staying power to it. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Who can say. What I can say is that we went for a bike ride this evening. One of the groups of the 300-strong local cycling club meets near our house for Tuesday and Thursday rides and they are a nice group of people. If the right combination of folks are there it is a challenging group. But this is early in the year and I will need a few more miles in me before I am ready to seek out something really challenging. So today we didn’t even go down the big hill — which required turning around and coming up the big hill.

It kept us fresh for a few late evening photos:

Two of the strong guys from that group were there, and we hung on to their wheels. They’d also gone down the big hill and the people behind us had, too. But I came up a little slope to get to the beginning of the group ride and knew I wasn’t trying that hill today. Sometimes you know, you know? And they say that wisdom is in listening to what you already know.

At least I said that. Perhaps others have too. Let’s see.

No, no one has ever said that. Lhamo Dondrub said something similar, and wiser: “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”

But that’s the Dalai Lama for you.

I’m never this enlightened on my bicycle. Well, almost never. Usually I’m breathing too hard. After the fact, when my legs are resting and my lungs aren’t burning, sure, I can think up all sorts of things about hills. Also, hills are always much shorter in my imagination and memory than in reality, as we’ll soon see.

adventures / cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
20
Mar 17

Notes that end the winter, and start the spring

It is the first day of spring, when everything should be new and possible, or impossibly new. It has been cold and damp and gray, because we have no respect for meteorological certainties.

But things are blooming on the ground. Last week, in the snow, the carefully installed pansies and daffodils were bent over low by a wet snow. And while that stuff is gone, the dampness is hanging over and clinging to us. The chill is made downright cold because of the damp, and upgraded to demoralizing based on the gray skies, because the gradient suggests it will never ever change.

So, on this, the weekend that prefaces spring, we had a dismaying end to winter. As for the winter itself, mild. Not so bad. A few harsh and cold days here and there and just a few small snow showers to hide from. It was, as they say, a mild one. But it has persisted enough, and the new has not yet begun with the proper zeal required by my discriminating tastes. (Rain today. Pleasant tomorrow. It is a fickle start to the season.)

So, on Saturday, I stayed inside and worked on a puzzle:

I received three puzzles at Christmastime. And I said they would be terrific winter weekend projects. As I am officially over the season, and the season has yet to be over itself, I am puzzling in protest. This is Declaration of Independence. I did the borders first, and then the historically accurate doodles along the bottom — Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams and Franklin. Then I slowed down as I worked on the signatures, because I went back to this book. It was also a gift a few years ago, about the origins and fates of the 56 men who signed the broadside.

And, of course I had a helper:

So that was Saturday. And yesterday, we actually saw the sun. It was the second time in a week, and such an exceptional occurrence that I’m now counting the times it happens each week. And I go outside. So, yesterday afternoon, a bike ride:

First one of the year. Felt like it, too!

cycling / Monday / photo / running — Comments Off
20
Feb 17

Signs of spring

We had a beautiful weekend here, how about you? When the clouds finally moved out on Saturday it got up into the 60s. And it stayed sunny on Sunday, too. Early spring? I’ll take it.

I had a nice medium-sized run. It should have been longer, but that’s the way of it sometimes. I did seven miles and then got hungry. I guess I needed more than a bowl of cereal. So I went inside and had a sandwich and went back out. By then, though, I’d cooled off, so I only did three more miles.

So this means I ran 10 miles and that was disappointed.

I do not know what is happening.

But! I saw the first new green stuff of the year:

Just behind that, was this:

Now, you can walk or run parallel to that fence and it just … ends. There’s no corner, no gate, no extra posts where the wire should be. It just stops. So I’m not sure how this is supposed to keep anyone in or out.

Down the other way, about a half mile, was this handsome old American sycamore:

In a few more weeks, maybe, the trees will be in bloom. Won’t that be a sight?

On Sunday I rode my bike to campus. I’d forgotten to bring something home on Friday and I needed it and it was such a beautiful day and so I slow-pedaled for about an hour and that was delightful. Just a beautiful day. I shot some video on my bike ride that is now on the front page of the site. I like that path, and I like the scenery, but I was trying to be sure I didn’t hit a few walkers while I was shooting that. I’ll have to go back and try again when there’s something on the trees.

cycling / Monday / photo / running — Comments Off
23
Jan 17

An easy 20 mile weekend

It was sunny and 67 and gorgeous on Saturday. We were supposed to run 12 miles, but you get days like this in January here only so often. Or a day. You only get a day like this in January only so often. (As in, Saturday. That was the one day.)

So instead of running we decided to go for a little bike ride. So we set out for the bike and pedestrian trails around town:

It was an easy spin. Just as well, because it was the first time I’d been on my bike since the end of last season. She was in fine form:

A lot of people were out, because they understand the weather to be an exception to what is ahead of us, so the trails were often full. Lots of walkers and joggers and families and you can hear the briefest of a snippet of conversations on the trails and I’m always hoping they fall together to make some nonsensical story. You’re around people for about a second, and it’ll take forever, but I’m hoping.

And there are a lot of kids on bikes. Whenever I see a kid on a bike I always try to compliment their ride. “Oh I need one that color!” Give a little boost and all that. Not this girl, though:

She went by me too fast.

On Sunday afternoon it was overcast and 60. We were supposed to run 12 miles, but I only got in five miles. It just didn’t feel good (so I added four more miles today). But it looked like this, which is what most winter days look like here:

And this:

We passed that barn going the other direction the day before on my bike. I’d tried to take a picture of it from my bike, but my phone’s iOS decided to confuse my opening the phone app for “Yes, let’s update right now!” I just wanted a photo of the silo and I got an all new operating system, instead. It was good that I found the barn and silo again on foot. I had no idea where we were when we rode past it, which is the best way to start your year on the bike.