Sleep inertia and Gazelle stalking

Monday: I didn’t ride in the morning… I was experiencing ‘sleep inertia’. This was due to the dogs letting me sleep the entire night for the first time in almost two months. Two of them got into a new habit of waking me up sometime between midnight and 3:30AM to go outside, sometimes one would wake me at 1AM and the other again at 3AM.

I was surprised I was able to make the drive in without a nodoff while waiting at a traffic light. I hadn’t had a case of the redlight nodoffs in a long time, not since I was heavy and sedentary actually. Another benefit of regular exercise, I suppose. Even with adequate sleep, the heavier me would sometimes take naps for a few seconds while my foot was on the brake at redlights or stopped in heavy traffic. Neither I nor my passenger was very happy about these side effects. It was odd that a good night’s sleep was suddenly a detriment. I needed an extra dose of caffeine.

Instead of riding, I took the opportunity to hang in my office two of my Christmas presents:

Nice.

The calendar was meant to be my bike porn, but all of these bikes were drop-bar touring bikes designed with humans 5’11 and taller in mind: they didn’t do much for me. Give me a little mixte Pashley, Bobbin, Gazelle, Betty Foy, Linus or even an old, black, lug-welded Omafiets… that was *my* idea of Bike Cheesecake Calendar Girls. The gift-giver had good intentions though and I hung it with pride in my office.  

Stalking a Gazelle

During the summer months, I stalked the owner of a Gazelle that I found parked around the city on two different occasions. The first time I came across the Gazelle, it was parked at the Casino. I ogled this gorgeous piece of machinery up close and took my time hoping the owner would return so I could fawn over her bike. A few weeks later, I saw the same bike parked at Marty’s Market on the day of Pedal Pittsburgh. I pretended to have a sore leg and let Hubby go off shopping in the Strip by himself while I waited at the Market. Again, admiring the Gazelle and lingering in the area, hoping the owner would return. I was sad to see it only locked with a cable. I restrained myself from leaving a note on the bike: 

A Gazelle would have much prettier handwriting than this.

Pittsburgh Schools announced Monday morning that they’d be closed on Tuesday due to severe low windchill temperatures. This meant our office would be closed too, putting the kibosh on riding in -35 windchills on Tuesday as well as riding Monday afternoon as the office was closing early. Dammit. This would mean 3 days with no riding.