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13.6 vs 21.9

Tried another alternative today. I parked my car at a shopping plaza 6 miles away from the house (A Publix, off of MLK/9th and Roosevelt if any of you know the area), kinda of a ..middle ground for the ride. Dimitrios was a bit adamant on me doing this - as me going down Roosevelt during 5pm traffic and near the I-275 Interstates during that time makes him a little nervous. I still have yet to fully experience it, but I can see why it would be sketchy just riding through it on the few mornings that I have. Even with hardly any traffic, cars are coming off that exit at a pretty fast pace (rightly so - they just got off the Interstate), so yea. This might be the best alternative that I found so far.

Parking the car and then riding the rest of the way is still going to save a good bit on gas so I'm ok with it. Anything at this point. Also another reason why I'm looking at bus routes as well. One of these days I'll get the courage to do that. Maybe during the summer.
It's not so much the 'courage'. I guess that's the wrong word. It's more of the anxiety of 'IF' I miss the bus, I have to wait for the other, which will in fact, put me 30 minutes late. And I hate being late...to anything. Anxiety issues that happened from a young age, what can I say. Unfortunately, I can't even 'test run' the bus route on the weekends as the routes that go over to Tampa DON'T RUN ON THE WEEKENDS (yes, our Mass transit is retarded).
There's also the fear of someone jacking my bike. I know this is probably HIGHLY unlikely, as the bus driver will hopefully be paying attention on who's bike is who -but still - you never know. Again, I know I can just keep an eye on it from the bus, but there's still that...anxiety of it happening.
But I'm sure I WILL have to take the bus one of these days over. Even if it's just one way home in the afternoon.

I still love the mornings here in the Tampa Bay Area. Riding over the water is so relaxing compared to being in the car. It makes me like where I live again. And able to tolerate it for just a bit longer.
Cyclist's aren't joking when they state "The World looks better on a bike".

Rain Rain - All Week and Today

Forecast actually told the truth for once this week.
I am currently listening to rain pelting my tin roof of my porch enclosure.

Looks like ..the only good riding will be tomorrow (which is the usual day I plan on riding in)...so we'll see.

Rain for the rest of the week....even going into Saturday.

Guess the rainy season is upon us.
Now to just accommodate the biking schedule for it...or just ride the Miyata for the next few weeks and not give a damn if I get wet or not.

Winds ESE at 18mph...

Gusting to 23mph....I weigh roughly 123-125...the wind will only pick up when I get on the bridge where there's no resistance (ie. trees, buildings, etc) to protect me. .....I think it was a good decision to turn around and drive in today. Stupid Wind...

Tomorrow is another day..and I will cross the Gandy Bridge this week via bicycle like I have the past three weeks...dammit.

Sometimes..the Cyclists Wins

Click the title for more info :)

Mark your Calendar

Mark your calendar! The Florida Department of Transportation is holding regional workshops around the state to obtain public and partner input on the future of transportation in Florida as part of development of the 2060 Florida Transportation Plan. Tampa - Monday, June 7, 2:30 - 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time FDOT District 7 Auditorium 11201 N. McKinley Drive Contact: Lee Royal 813-975-6427 lee.royal@dot.state.fl.us

Then there's the pleasure of the early morning ride...

I rode into work...
Nobody bothers me on this long ride. I have yet to be honked at - bitched at, yelled at or even buzzed.
I thought that Tampa and the Gandy Bridge would be horrid - especially since traffic over in Tampa always seems to be just so..Bad...

However, this is the second day I have rode in and had..nothing.
And it made me feel a lot better about stuff...in general.

NEW RULE: Instead of being mopey pants - MUST.GET.ON.BIKE.WHEN.FEELING.BAD.TO.TURN.THAT.FROWN.UPSIDE.DOWN.

:D

Only catch is - when you're feeling mopey - the bike sometimes is not as inviting as it could/should be ya know? The couch seems to call your name a LOT more when you're depressed.
But man does it feel good to be on that bike.
This afternoon however, when I'm riding back over the bridge - I WILL be cursing the wind AND the sun today. LOL...just like I did last week as well. :D

Green Stats

Green Stats
Total Workout Days: 260
Distance Traveled: 2,885.90 mi.
Gas Saved: 160.33 gallons
Money Saved: $557.94
Carbon Offset: 3,104.0 lbs. of CO2

Two of the routes I've done in the past month

Daytona Beach (from our hotel on our vacation on)
http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/fl/south%20daytona/798127297297522715

My Route to work
http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/fl/tampa/largo%2c%20fl/528127297335144637

Apologies

My life has been a little hectic as of late:
- I finished school and will be graduating in two weeks
- I acquired a heart-rate monitor and can thus track my training a lot better. Got ready to make training goals and then:
- I was laid off from my job (which was only 5 miles from my home)
- I had to put off cycling for about 4-5 weeks while job searching (save for some small trips here and there to enjoy myself)
- I did a cycling adventure vacation up in Jacksonville with The Greek and had a great time
- I acquired work four weeks after being laid off over in Tampa
- Which makes for a 21 mile ride to work, ONE WAY
- AND I WILL BE DOING THIS 2x a week and commuting BACK over the Gandy Bridge every week (Weather permitting of course)

I already sucessfully did the commute one day this week. Dimitrios rode with me as he had mapped out the way for me through Tampa. The ride in? Kick ass - it was nice and cool super early in the morning (takes about an hour and a half to ride to work), and the water being on both sides was great. Hell, we were even passed by another cyclist who was booking it while we were going 23mph.
The ride home? HELL (LOL). We went from having the wind at our backs to fighting the wind, and being in the direct sunlight while going over the bridge. The wind was up to 20mph and we were going 11mph just fighting it.

It was still worth it though - and still awesome.
And so much worth riding and waking up 2 hours earlier than normal jsut to be on the bike and do soemthing that I love so much.

So I will be updating more here in the future. After my graduation ceremony in two weeks - expect weekly updates, status and comments on my trip over the Gandy and my commute as well as reports on my Project: Buff this year.

Ciao! for Niao!

2010 - New Year New Motivations

I have one more week of school - ONE.MORE.WEEK - - after that - training is going to be in full force with the biking, dancing, and every other thing that has been compromised while in school.

Got new shifters for the Trek - I have now moved up in the world to Shimano Tiagra's, which also meant a new cassette on the bike as well, so the Trek is now a 9 speed on the back. Woohoo - I got's more gears. That, I never really get to use since we live in FLATLAND (meh) but that will probably change here soon as I have requested that we make the trek out to San Antonio, FL to ride on hills so I can get acclimated to them for when/if we move out of state. If that does happen, it's going to start happening pretty fast.

The biking schedule has increased even though my mapmyride for the last two months hasn't shown it - just stopped logging it and I can't remember what I rode for certain - memory is being retained right now for school stuff and my finals this week. But I'm riding more to work and for errands and driving less and it feels pretty great!

In the market for a heart-rate monitor now. If I want to train and I want to train right, those are key to learning while training. Will update when I have one of those as well.

Need to get my schedule back on track - super cold weather didn't stop me from riding (yes I was riding to work in 35 degree weather - what of it?) but the dance schedule has. Along with my ballroom dancing I am now taking up belly-dance as well and those classes are on certain nights that mess up my early night for bed so I can do my before dawn/work bike ride. I've been waking up late and that's not good. So I think I need to change my schedule around to do the before dawn bike ride on Mondays, Fridays and every other Thursday. We'll see if that works.

This week's ride schedule will be M, W, TH, F - Ballroom is usually on Wednesdays, but I haven't heard anything from Joe/My Instructor...so I'm actually starting to get a little worried.

Welcome to 2010!

Updates

Dimitrios and I have been biking a lot more now that the weather is pleasant. We took our steel frame/commuter bikes this Sunday and rode to Target and got items we needed (put them in our pannier set), had a nice lunch and then rode back. About a 10 mile ride for the day. Dimitrios is also riding for everything now. His car has not been moved from the parking space since November 7th, when we got back from our Atlanta/The Jesus Lizard trip. It's been pretty cool. And it's not like the miles are going on my car, cause my car has pretty much been parked with the exception of the usual 1-2 days a week I drive into work.

We also rode to his mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner. That was really nice too. Ended up getting a night ride in (as it was about 11pm when we left her house), and the roads were dead. Very different and very odd for a Thursday night in Largo; but very beneficial for us as we weren't bothered by any motorists. People driving that did pass us didn't even seem to be in a rush, which is a nice change.

Rode the commuter bike to work as it was Monday and I didn't want to work up a huge sweat. D then suggested we go to his mom's for Turkey Soup (which was delicious). I suggested he meet me at work and so we rode from my work to his mom's - had a nice dinner and left about 8pm, we headed home and a mile away from the house, my pulley broke on the derailer, causing no inertia/pull. D went back to get the pieces and then pushed me the mile left that we had home! Got home and ordered the part - thank goodness only a 4 dollar part. So, my commuter bike is out of commission for a bit - no big deal. Should be back in working order by this weekend.

Been riding three weeks now two days a week an hour before I am expected to go into work. It's been nice. I think next week I might bump it up to 3 days a week. Mondays are just going to be commute only days; as I can't get my @$$ up to save my life on Mondays.
And I came up with an 'epiphany' this past weekend while staring at my car parked in the parking spot. I think on the days/weeks I have appointments I'm just going to drive the car into work on Monday mornings and keep the car in the parking garage at work all week and just bike to and from work. I mean...why not?? That way on my lunch appointments I can drive to them and make it - and IF it rains, then at least the car is here for me to use and I don't have to try and find another alternate route/plan (even though 75% of the time I just ride in the rain cause I like to). Then on Friday, just drive the car back home. Easy Peasy. And I will still be able to get most of my riding in during the week.
So that's the update ...I'll get better at posting on this now that I'm riding more often. And I'll be sure to post my stats as well soon as I haven't done that in awhile either

Discoveries

I'm not as young as I used to be. I need sleep - and a decent amount of it in order to function. The days of drinking and being retarded, crashing out and then getting only 4 hours of sleep to wake up the next morning and go to work are done/over. I'm 30 - it doesn't work that way anymore.

Also - setting any...WORKOUT goal on a Monday morning (or a biking goal for that matter) ain't gonna happen for a bit. I wanted to start riding in the mornings before I head to work - at least an hour before -- twice a week for starters. I THOUGHT Mondays would be perfect for that, but they're not, as I want to sleep in until I absolutely HAVE to get up and get my butt on that bike.

I went to bed at 10pm last night. It was kinda hard as I usually want to fight to stay up as late as possible (EFF THE MAN), I had to use two glasses of champagne in order to just make me sleepy - crashed...and amazingly - woke up on my own at 4:52am (alarm was set for 5:15). I laid there...kinda surprised by all the noise that goes on outside my window/in the parking lot of my complex (I had no idea that many people went to work at that time) until the alarm went off, then got up - started a load of laundry and got ready for the bike ride before work.

Headed out of the house @ 6am -- rode until 6:50 in the neighborhood behind my work, and then headed into work at 7am.
So I now know that:
a) I HAVE to go to bed by 10pm if I'm going to get up for this ride by 6am
b) I CANNOT DRINK the night before a ride day. Or..really ever again for that matter. I'm sure I will have certain weekends that I will drink but that whole hangover shit?! yea, not happening anymore.
c) The 6am ride is awesome. There's hardly anyone on the road and the people that are?? Leave you the hell alone. Plus seeing the sun come up in the morning and all the colors over the horizon - ah-MAZ-ing! I'm going to have to get my handheld back from Chris and take a photo one morning while I'm riding. :D
d) The awesome thing about being short is that you can take legwarmers that are supa-cheap at Target and use them as arm warmers as well and nobody is the wiser. My total warm gear on my bike (without my coat as I felt it would make me too hot)....about 5 dollars (the sets of legwarmers were 2.50 each last year). And they just look like sleeves...awesome.
e) Bike riding makes me feel better - so I need to not let it fall astray and continue it.

Those are my discoveries for the week - well - that and the Jesus/Gun Truck I mentioned earlier today

Sited while doing my hour ride before work...

A Ford F-150 that has a sticker of the Head of Christ on it (with thorns) and then gun shot stickers all around the Jesus Sticker and the truck. What kind of symbolism is that?! I want to Shoot Christ? I've been shot for liking Chirst? I'm just a retard?! WHICH ONE?!

Link for test