The red-headed step bicycle

Meet "The Bike That I Hate". She doesn't have headlamps, blinkies, a cellphone holder or a basket with yarn adornments that her rider spent hours painstakingly weaving into it. She has a bell and a rack though, and she should be happy for that.

Every time I ride The Bike That I Hate, I return with an issue. I adjust my seat, but it still feels awkward and uncomfortable. Today, I adjusted the height of the nose of the seat and threw her up on the rack preparing for a local trail ride before the snow hits tomorrow. Maybe this will do the trick. I do love her shifters and drive train though. Smoooth. If I could rip the shifters and drive train off of TBTIH and slap them on The Lilac Monster, I'd be a happy woman. TLM makes some hideous noises when shifting. I cringe when I shift gears. Any other cyclist within earshot does too: I'm betting they say "I hear the broken".

WWII Memorial dedication ceremony

I had the morning off and decided to just ride around in the cold and rain for a few hours. Nothing of note happened until I stumbled upon the dedication ceremony of the new WWII memorial on the North Shore. News media, dignitaries, veterans all assembled shivering in the cold. The silence was deafening when Taps was played.

YTD Miles: 483
Today's BMI: 25.5
(just .5 away from 'normal')

Locks of love, baskets of beans.

I set out on a lovely 62 degree morning with some SoupInABasket items to pick up in the Strip.

On the way, I noticed that the padlock tradition that had been going on in Oakland has now migrated to the Clemente Bridge.

This one would match my bike.

Parked at Kaya. Two of the corral racks are painted gold. I’d love to know why.

Picked up some split green peas (yeah, I realize they're not beans!) to make erwtensoep for the Soupaneuring Challenge. I also got some carrots to snack on and  some parsley for balela.

Across the street, a café’ caught my eye. Why not sneak in some Coffeeneuring too?

On the way back I encountered Bike Rush Hour!

The WWII memorial is being prepped for dedication. The burlap is down and the memorial is covered.

YTD miles: 475 
Today's BMI: 26.3

Something Wicked

It has come my way.

I thought that as a cyclist, my stumbling block was difficulty finding my way around the city on a bike efficiently, that wasn't my biggest problem as it turns out.

From bad things come good, generally. We learn from mistakes; we overcome hurdles, or find a detour around them. Lemons and lemonade... that sort of thing. I'd been faced with hypoglycemia and food allergies some years ago. They were bad, they made my life miserable. I detoured. I was conscious of everything I ate and avoided sugar; I had to give up beer. Wait, let me rephrase that: I. HAD. TO. GIVE. UP. BEER! The result was weight loss and a more defined view of healthy eating.
Then, I gained a love of exercise, I went to the gym 7-8 hours a week. I was hailed as a model of determination by my co-workers who saw me taking off for the gym more than once a day. It was difficult (especially the beer part), but had positive outcomes.

Yes, among my co-workers and friends, who rarely exercised, I was fit in comparison and when looking back on the days where I got winded rolling over in bed. I became complacent. I told myself that snacking every few hours would keep my hypoglycemia in check. I no longer accepted that the weight that I had been holding at for the past two years was a plateau to be broken, but this was just the weight I was meant to be. A BMI of 27.4 was good enough for me. Hey, it wasn't 55.9 anymore, right? I wasn't gaining weight.

Riding with proficient cyclists turned that around. These people are Fit. I was Not.

The Something Wicked this time was: harsh truth, reality.

Something good will come of this.

Soupaneuring #1

I'm going to be the pain-in-the-keester rule bender with Soupaneuring. All of my rides are going to be SoupInABasket options. Yeah, I'm a rebel. I'm a rule bender! lookout! Next, I'll be running with scissors.

Looking for hills, I rode from the West End Bridge over the Ft Duke bridge and over the Ft Pitt bridge and back to my desk at work. Yeah, soup for breakfast, I'm crazy like that. This might be my only legitimate ride, as I can't sup at the same location more than once.

Here's my first soup concoction: barley, parsnip, carrots and onion in a rich, marrow-y beef broth.

The stranger's glove and improvised socks

The morning after my first group ride, I'd vowed to train myself on hills. I went in extra early, got into my cold weather layers and discovered I'd left my gloves and rain jacket in the other car. How could I ride in 36 degree weather glove-less? I improvised: socks.
The socks weren't protecting very much as I discovered as I got up to speed. But I spotted something on the ground in our parking lot, a lone glove. No, don't do it! You don't know where that glove's been! Are you kidding me? Are you really considering this? What is wrong with you?
My cold hands argued: But, it looks clean, newish...it's a nice brand too...and it's right in a parking stall in a spot where it was probably dropped by another tenant when they were getting into or out of their car. Just do it and wash your hands afterwards!

So, I went on my way with one glove and two socks on the other hand. No excuses.

I went seeking a hill. I found one that would challenge me, I could ride up and down it repeatedly, working on my endurance without anyone to hear my labored breathing.

The winter would be a perfect time to do this... unless it was icy.

Hanukkah ride

This was my first group ride, a menorah festooned bike parade set to trail behind the cars in the parade adorned with electric menorahs.

The small cluster I was following didn't actually know where they were going. We were at 5th and McKee, dodging buses intent on smearing us before I started to doubt his sense of direction. I asked him our destination and realized were blocks past our target and I led the two of them to the tent.

I was very glad to get out of 4 lane traffic and to see familiar faces, S and E. I also met a high school classmate of my hubby's, Yale.
Stu on his unicycle makes me smile. I got to see our mayor-elect fumble with the shamus.

Again, a hill got the better of me, more than once. At this point, the best technique to conquering them is to get in better shape, frankly. I need to will set aside time to actually train on hills and learn to love them. Just go up a hill, sail down it, reverse course and repeat instead of dawdling about lazily on the flat bits so much. As a result, my ass might will be the 20 pounds lighter it needs to be.

YTD miles: 460