Susan at Middletown Obama office, originally uploaded by gertzse.
I chose to forgo bike riding this weekend in exchange for painting the enormous canvas sign above for the opening of our local Obama campaign office. You can see the sign in progress on Flickr. I’ll be volunteering throughout the campaign season … but also riding my bike as much as possible. Bicycle bumper stickers anyone?
My previous Flickr search for Revive bikes missed Pockafwye’s lovely bike, Matilda. Now that I see Matilda, I come to realize that my bike is nameless. Do I need a remedy? Also, Pockafwye mentioned wearing a camera while riding, and that’s just what Tom and both I tried today for the first time, rather than keeping our cameras in our packs. It was fun.
My bike is back, and Tom and I cruised the Great Miami River today on this sunny, windy day. The sky is the bluest sky-blue with puffy white clouds, the river is high, fast, and brown, and the trees are in their deep summer greens. On a day like this, “our” usual bike path was not entirely our own, and we met, among others, a cadaver search dog out for a fun swim in the river and his human companion, a really speedy tandem bike pair in ultra-cool cycling gear, and a large family out for a ride with kids: Dad with baby in seat on back of bike, tot on tiny bike with training wheels, a couple of school-agers with bigger bikes, and Mom following up behind to make sure no-one straggled behind. Pretty much like the duck family we saw swimming in the river.
Happy riding!
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You haven’t heard from me in a bit…my trusty Revive went into the shop for a tune-up because the gear shifting was getting a bit janky. With 150 miles on it, I was told a bit of cable stretch was a normal wearing in process and some readjustment to be expected. However, what was advertised as a 2-3 day timeline for completion has grown into almost 2 weeks. Come on people! I need to work on the next 150 miles…
DSC_0622.NEF, originally uploaded by gertzse.
Here is the Great Miami River at dusk as Tom and I ride on one of our nearly-nightly outings along the riverside bike trail. While its too bad that our segment of the trail doesn’t connect to anything yet, the advantage for us is that the trail and the river seem nearly like our personal backyard park. On a typical evening we may see a handful of people at most, but sometimes we are the only ones. We almost always see a blue heron or two, redwing blackbirds, geese, and a lot of other birds I’m not sure of. (If you check out rivercycle my husband might talk more about the birds.)
When I very spontaneously bought my Revive bike a few months ago as a total non-rider, I never dreamed I would see 150 miles on the odometer so soon! Yes, you fabulous cyclists out there crank out 150 miles on a sunny weekend. But I’m going from complete computer geek-hood by day, couch potato-hood by night to riding 8, or 9 miles every nice evening I can. So, happy 150 miles to the Revive and me!
Trail Mileage Guide, originally uploaded by gertzse.
Some of you may recall my post about our first ride on the Little Miami bike trail, From Zenia to Yellow Springs and Back: A Bonk and a Victory, this is our second trip, a bit longer ride, but flatter, shadier, and for me, a lot less stressful!
We left Morrow mid-morning at the requisite rails to trails station plus caboose (see photos) and set off for Loveland. The bike trail was immediately lush, green, and shady. Even though the day was coolish for June, the shade was welcome and became more welcome as the day progressed. The Little Miami meanders to the right of the trail, sometimes quite wide. On this pleasant day, we saw several people in canoes. Its a popular spot; canoe liveries dot this area. Some of the trees in this area are large, maybe old growth forest? I don’t know. At this time of year, crown vetch and clover are blooming prettily along the trailside.
Well, I’m still a slow rider, maybe 8–11 miles an hour on this flatish trail. A slight grade up, a slight grade down, a flat part, repeat a bunch of times, and we go on for about 13 miles. LOTS of speedy, cool-looking men and women in bike team jerseys pass at what seemed like 50 miles an hour …. “on your left,” “thanks!” But I enjoy my ride on the Revive, and Tom enjoys his ride on the Day 6. The woodsy setting does not offer many bathroom opportunities, and I am staying well-hydrated as per my doctor, so Tom and I did have one “in the bushes” stop each before we reached Loveland. (Easier for him than me, BY FAR!)
Some of my favorite non-biking shoes—Keen sandals— use a bungee-type lace. I love the neatness and convenience of snugging up the elastic with the little rachet thingy. So, I decided to try to find a similar replacement lace for my cycling shoes. I found some goofy kid-type elastic laces, and some elastic laces where the two lace ends remained floppy and separated. Not right for me…they had to be crimped nicely together at the end like in the Keens! Finally, I happened upon Locklaces. I installed the laces in my cycling shoes following the instructions (easy!), and voila, cool bungee laces that work perfectly and look awesome.
Wow, that title sounds pretty serious for my little biking blog! But I admit that I was thinking about this topic as I enjoyed my 7 mile bike ride tonight. See, I’ve been a person like many of us who’s been fat and been thin but never been fit. And I’ve also been a person who’s had sizeism issues about whether people who are too fat (ME included) should be out in public doing something that looks sweaty and unflattering or involves revealing parts of them (or ME) better kept under wraps.
And because of my self-censure, I’ve waited to do a lot of things until I was OK to do them in my own eyes. “I have to lose 50 pounds before I do this. I have to fit into a different pair of pants before I do that.” But years go by, and for a wide array of reasons, the pounds and the pants don’t change. And the adventure remains untried. Keep reading →
You see me here at the Zenia Station, my fingers held victoriously after a 20 mile round trip last weekend.
Since 6 or 7 miles around the Great Miami River trail near my house has become a fairly easy ride, I wasn’t planning to be overly challenged by going 10 miles each way to Yellow Springs and back with a lunch break in between. But not eating in advance, heat, allergies, and a constant 3 percent uphill grade had their way with me. Here’s the story. Don’t worry, you already know it has a happy ending…
Zenia, Ohio is fairly famous for being destroyed not once, but twice by tornadoes. The small city is also where a number of bicycle trails branch off from the station in the photo above. According to the Miami Valley Trails website “The Xenia Trails Station was built on the site of the old Baltimore and Ohio freight yards on the Miami Street Extension. The Station, built on 7 acres, is the hub of all trail activities in Greene County, Ohio. From it trails lead in five directions to Dayton ( East) , Springfield (North) , Jamestown (Southeast) , London (Northeast) and almost to Cincinnati (South) “
We started out later than planned, in mid-afternoon, and the sun was hot. The trail North, towards Yellow Springs, leaves Xenia Station and proceeds through downtown. After meandering along on sidewalks marked with wide yellow bicycle lanes, we enter the trail proper. All is well, we are proceeding out of town, and the trail starts off with a comforting downhill slope. For a while we move from cover of vegetation to view of commercial areas and back to vegetation again. The slope takes an uphill turn. Not yet uphill so that you can see a hill…that came later…but a consistent grade you can feel…no more coasting! You can see the elevation map below for the entire trail. I’m not sure what exact part we were on, but somewhere in the Northern part, not as far North as Springfield.
Now, I’m a slow rider. On flat ground, when I break the 10 mph barrier, I’m really moving! The longer I go uphill towards Yellow Springs (and its all uphill from now on, baby!), the slower I get. The “easy” ride advertised as taking about an hour is working its way towards a 2-hour ride for me. My average speed? About 6 mph. Children passed me. Little old ladies on fat-tired bikes passed me. Guys on recumbent trikes passed me. One really fast walker almost passed me.
