Take twice a day
April 17th, 2006 @ 21:09 by NormMonkey
From the stories department:
Trail of Power
Awaken. The sun shines. Stretch. Pet a cat.
Today, it starts.
Go outside. Uncover the bike. Strap on the panniers, the camera gear. Reset the cycling computer.
And so it begins.
A quick jaunt through the park, then onto Glamorgan, a quiet street. It seems slightly uphill, and what little wind there is tries to slow you down.
No matter.
Glamorgan leads to Rothesay, which ends at Eagleson. Stop. Wait. Wait some more. Is the sensor working? Finally the light changes.
Down the street, at the bend is a path into Shetland park, and onto the Trans-Canada trail. Another three kilometers, some level, some a bit uphill. The wind is not enough to wiggle the trees, but it tries, it tries to slow you down.
No matter.
The path at the bridge merges with Robertson. At 6 kilometers, a third of the way there. Crappy shoulder, but the lane is wide enough for both cars and bikes. Right at Moodie.
The shoulder is even crappier now, but it’s a short jaunt to W. Hunt Club. Wait for the light, turn left. The shoulder is beautiful and wide. The bumps are few and far between. Slightly uphill, and the wind, trying to slow you down, is not enough to pay any attention to.
Up over the overpass, to Greenbank, then to Woodroffe, Hunt Club goes by like a blur. What a sweet, sweet road. Right at Woodroffe, and 2 or 3 kilometers to go. Left at Vaan. Vaan is nice and quiet. The peoples’ houses among gentle hills. A kid ties her shoes and waits for the school bus.
Left at Slack, and the journey is over. It feels good. Awakened, refreshed, energized. It’s like a drug.
Take twice a day.
AZROLB blinks.
The Path Less Taken
You may have noticed that the graph at the top has changed. I wondered if, as I get into the habit of biking to work, the time it takes will go down. I decided to graph the distance, too, as if it’s going to change somehow. Mainly I’m just curious to see what difference, if any, there is in distance to and from work. After awhile I’ll stop tracking distance and change the time axis to range from 30 to 60 minutes, the better to illustrate differences.
Speaking of time, the journey to work seemed slow and laborious. It seemed to be more uphill, it seemed to be more windy, it seemed to be less fast. The trip home seemed more lighthearted, as though the wind was helping me along. Every time I looked down at my speedometer, I saw upper 20’s, low 30’s. I was *sure* I’d see a better time by around 5 minutes.
Surprise! Almost the same exact time. And 0.8km less distance, courtesy of Moodie (which, from now on, I’ll sneak onto going south. Bicycles excepted, or at least they should be d:) So overall, lower average speed! Just goes to show the powers of attitude and perception. May all your bike journeys be swift and lighthearted. Screw the numbers.
Well, I had some fun with the camera on the weekend, and results are over at the gallery. Specifically, http://www.gnurple.net/gallery/cpy-20060414. I interspersed my favourites throughout this post, ending with this one:
Paddington Leaps
It occurs to me that whenever I say I’m going to do something here on The Blog, it jumps off the bandwagon, falls by the wayside, and through the cracks. So, to end the blog, here’s what NOT to expect next time:
* Car pics
* Bike pics
* A creative story of some kind
