Saturday, March 28, 2009

Riding On The Edge

Today I had a great plan to get my workouts in and make it so everyone would have fun. This is what I was supposed to do today:
S: 1000m continuous, open water if possible.
B: 2 hours, RPE4-5. Try to get this in after the swim. Try out post swim
nutrition timing to see how your stomach handles the bike effort combined
with the unavoidable swallowing of lake/pool water
Well, there was no way I was going to do an open water swim! Brrrrr! So, I thought we could all go to the pool and I could play with the kids for a few minutes before doing my laps, then leave them with Pete and ride my bike home. 

We had a late morning, had pancakes, and I cleaned my bike (since last time I rode it in the rain,  it was REALLY dirty) before we got out the door to go to the pool. By the time we got there, there wasn't going to be time for me to do everything and be back in time to take Mindy to ballet so I thought I'd just cut my ride a little short.  Then we went into the kiddy pool and the kids had been playing for just a few minutes when they told us that anyone not taking swimming lessons had to get out. The lady evacuating us told us we could "wait around for an hour" like we have nothing better to do with our lives. I couldn't go swim in the other pool either, because they were having a swim meet in there. We really need to check the schedule before we take the kids swimming there again. They were all very disappointed to have to get out, and I can't blame them. Pete let them play on the climbing wall for quite a while, though, and took them for slurpees afterwards.

I ended up only riding my bike for 1:14, but that's better than nothing. It felt much better to ride with a clean chain too!

On the way home, I was coming down a pretty steep hill (Val Verde in Bountiful), and going pretty fast so I did what I usually do in that situation and ride close to the middle of the lane so that I'm less likely to hit some gravel or the curb and get thrown from my bike. I was doing this, concentrating on the road, when a car honked at me. This is quite startling because when you're going fast like that, all you can really hear is the wind rushing past your ears, and you don't always realize a car is behind you. I got kind of mad and did the, "Hey, watch it buddy!" arm gesture to him as he passed. It's not like I was going slow. I was probably going close to the speed limit, and he didn't get to the bottom of the hill very much before me at all. I was just thinking, "Would it have killed you to just slow down a tiny bit?!" It's a good thing he turned before I got there because I might have been tempted to stick my tung out at him or something.

Once when I was riding with a friend, we had a car honk at us like that (only we weren't going really fast down a hill so it didn't really scare me as much) and she said, "I hate it when they honk."  I hadn't really thought much of it and said, "I'm sure they were just letting us know they were there." It's interesting how much your state of  mind can change how you feel about something like that. I'm sure this guy today was just letting me know he was there, and not trying to be rude.  I'm sorry for any mean feelings I had towards you, guy, if you're reading this.

It just makes me wonder if I was in the wrong. What do you do, dear readers, when you are riding your bike really fast down a hill? Do you go in the middle like me or try to stay on the edge? Or, are you on the other side of the picture? Do you honk and drive by the person on the bike, or do you just slow down a little and stay behind them until you get to the bottom of the hill? I don't know what I'd do if I were the driver. I'd like to say that I would be the one to slow down and wait, but I'm not sure. It's easy to think that you're more important than someone else no matter what side of the picture you're on. I need to try not to do this, I need to try to imagine what other people are thinking more.

3 comments:

  1. It's kind of a problem here, we have alot of narrow country roads and if bikes don't ride on the side or single file(when in a group) you will be waiting awhile to go around if your driving. So when i'm on my bike i try my best to stay to the side. But i've never honked. We all have to try our best to share the road.

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  2. Since I have started biking a lot more in the recent years I am much more sensitive to biker safety. I would never honk at one because I know how startling that is. When I ride I stay as far to the right as I possibly can without having to ride through the garbage. When I go on group rides with our bike store down the road, I get frustrated with the people who ride in the middle of the road, especially when not necessary. The cars get upset because it is hard to get around them on a two lane road, which is what we mostly ride. Cars do need to slow down though and be more understanding because there are time when it is necessary to be away from the edge.

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  3. Thanks for your comments.

    Just so you know, I do usually stay as far to the left as possible. It's only every once and a while that I go more in the middle of the lane.

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