Bruises and sweets

Vannevar invited me on a ride out to Oakmont Bakery, this interested my husband more than anything. He loves sweets from exceptional bakeries, and this was an exceptional bakery. Among the troupe were S, Yale C and Rusty.
The hour he suggested we meet was ungodly early. This was a good thing though, we were able to wrap up early.

It was dark on the way to the trailhead.

I decided to forsake the gravely trail and took to the street that ran parallel to the trail. There, I met with a set of railroad tracks, didn't ride over them properly and went down hard on my left arm when the wheel slipped into the tracks. I got up slowly, testing my arm and shoulder because I heard a snap when I hit the asphalt. Nothing felt broken or out of their sockets. Maybe the snap was just my snap-crackle-pop prone neck? I knew I'd have a nice mark on my arm though. It swelled up considerably by the time we got to the bakery and had a nice blue shade.

Hubby will tell me "I told you so" if he hears about this!

Looks like these tracks used to serve the Heinz plant

Damn you, wet railroad tracks!

I got hubby a small burnt almond torte... that's his favorite. I had a heck of a time deciding what to get for him... there were so many wonderful choices! I almost got a tiramisu too. I considered some bacon cupcakes for me, but I restrained myself.

On the way back, S got a flat. This was her 3rd in the past month. I watched her working in the hopes I'd learn something useful.

The fix-it DIY repair station in front of the Bike Pittsburgh offices.

My knee also got very angry on the way back. I was limping and pedaling with one leg by the end of the trip. I'm icing it now and plan on soaking all of today's injuries in alcohol.

A very good time was had in spite of my agony and I got to know all these wonderful folks a bit better. 32 miles logged. I'm not sure that I'll be able to break this record for a while.

2014 YTD Miles: 113
BMI: 25.3

"Be safe out there." and the final Soupaneuring

Thursday, 1/9/13 I learned that my personal trainer/massage therapist is moving out of state. This disturbs me greatly. I think I've employed her for 4 years now. We've been through a lot: once, my knee dislocated during one of our sessions. She knows exactly how my piriformis and IT band needs to be massaged on my angry leg. I've tried other massage therapists, but they didn't have her expertise or willingness to bring me to tears and wince in agony with that 'hurt so good' sort of pain.



On Friday I had enough time before work to ride into the Strip for produce and such. The trails were still crap and I took streets the entire route. I stopped at PennMac and a baby Swiss caught my eye. I never seem to be there at the right time to be called "Dearheart" by Carol. It's frustrating. I've lived here for a quarter century, and have not yet had this honor.

Someday, Carol. Someday

I had a young woman with a funky hairstyle wait on me instead. As she handed me the cheese, she told me "Be safe out there." This was the best sendoff I could have asked for. I still had my blinking helmet on and I was hi-vized out the wazoo. It was rather evident that safety was a concern of mine. Was she a cyclist too?


On my lunch hour, the ride was much more pleasant. The trails had almost no ice on them and cyclists, joggers and walkers were out in droves as if it were Spring! The rapidly increasing temperatures were melting everything.

I'm messing with Photoshop's Panorama Merge and compiled this shot from several taken on the Fort Pitt Bridge.

I should try this again then the skies aren't so gloomy.

While I was up in the bridge taking those shots, I noticed Yale C riding down at the Point and waved a hello at him when I passed by.

The wild swing in weather also meant that my joints were going to become angry. Sure enough, by dinnertime I was tempted to dig out some ibuprofen but chose to use more natural methods of dealing with the pain: soaking them in alcohol. I chose a cabernet.

Saturday January 11th

I was able to work from home with a borrowed laptop this morning. Working in my jammies with the distractions of a dog on my lap and the other two dogs continually giving me a toy to throw/fetch is a much better work environment.

Afterwards, a ride in the rain was in order. I had several stops to make, I wanted to check out some bags at the Downtown Army/Navy store, but they didn't have what I was looking for. On to lunch at Smallman Street Deli for the final trip in the Soupaneuring Challenge. I was glad to learn the matzo ball broth was MSG-free!

While I ate, the rain started letting up. I traveled down to Lotus and picked up some much-needed soy sauce and then over to another market where I found organic kale and some parsley. The kale wouldn't fit in my basket without poking out like a giant green floral arrangement. Several other shoppers commented on my cape and helmet. It's apparent that I'm quite the freakshow. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

On my way back through downtown, they were dis-assembling the Horne's Christmas tree. Yes, I'm always going to call it the Horne's tree even though Horne's hasn't occupied that building in well over a decade.

When I got home, a delivery of ski-goggles was waiting for me. I saw so many other cyclists wearing them at Icycle Bicycle and had S's glowing endorsement of them. I was tired of my glasses fogging up in the cold when I wore a gaiter. I managed to score an insanely cheap eBay find and figured what the heck. I think I'm going to like these.

2014 YTD Miles: 81.5
BMI: 25.3

Rule #9 might be the DumbAss Rule.

Almost 11 hours later, my fingertips still feel weird... numb I suppose is the word to describe them. I've found my Achilles heel when it comes to riding in brutally cold temperatures: keeping my fingers warm. I've mastered keeping everything else nice and toasty and free of frostbite.

I went out for a ride before work when it was 8 above zero, stayed out in those conditions for an hour. I stopped twice to stick my hands inside my layers and warm my screaming fingers. I continued once they warmed up. When I got back to the loading dock to lock my bike back up, my fingers began to ache and throb intensely. Holy crap, that hurt. I paced back and forth in the bike rack room flinging my arms around and rubbing my hands trying to get the blood flowing to them again. After a few minutes of this, the intense pain went away, but I'm still left with numb fingertips.

Wow, I was wearing liners and thick lobster gloves and I still managed to get a mild case of frostbite? I now have a healthy respect of severe cold. That's not stuff to screw around with. Looks like my tolerance level for long rides in the cold is about 20 degrees.



A fellow cyclist over at Twitter suggested circulatory issues are to blame.

The rivers are chunky style.

The Lands' End boots kicked ass though, no cold toes, no toe warmers needed. I'm completely head over heels (pun intended) in love with my boots.


Thankfully, the days ahead are promising better, more hospitable riding weather.



2014 YTD Miles: 50
BMI: 25.3

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.

Yielding to Hula-Hoopers

Rode out to REI on Saturday, a gorgeous day in the high 30's and picked up a sorely need pair of glove liners. I was not letting cold fingers deter me from riding again. I also 'found' a pair of boots that hubby bought for me many Christmases ago and I let sit virtually unused in my closet since. It turns out they are incredibly warm, dry and suitable for riding. No toe warmers needed with these boots, even in single digit temps!

I'm noticing graffiti on ped-xing signs around the city. Pedestrians with wings and hula-hooping ones too. I'll have to look closely for more. DB also told me about the mysterious 'Protractors' all about the city during our conversation the other day. I noticed one on the Hot Metal Bridge today. I may have to start snapping shots of those too.



Stopped in Point State Park, just because.

When I got back home, this was waiting for me:

Thanks, Mary!



2014 YTD Miles: 43.5
BMI: 25.3

"Metal? ICK! Ahhh" and CLINT HURDLE!

I had some maintenance I needed to do, there was a horrid cringe-inducing metal-on-metal scraping noise whenever I tried to use my rear brakes. Off to the interwebs to learn how to fix this issue. I find YouTube invaluable for this stuff: things I've never done before. I was able to learn from such videos the finesse required to remove and reattach a chain link with a breaker tool and changing the flapper valves in our toilets.

I spent a good week or so using only my front brakes but decided this was the day I needed to carve out a few minutes of my lunch hour to take the brakepads off and clean them. My hands got all icky and black from working in there.

Both rear breakpads had metal shards embedded in them.

 Ruby sounds soooo much better. I let out an audible "ahhhhh." when I re-installed the brakepads and tested them. I still have an annoying rubbing noise though.

My Dad would be proud.

A Brush with Greatness

Friday was frigid an snowy, schools and our office closed shop, but not before myself and another employee were already there and working. The two of us decided to stay and tough it out.

On my lunch hour, I went out into 11 degree temps, the trails were treacherous again so I used the salted and plowed roads. I got to PNC Park and my fingers were in a lot of pain, I was frustrated that I hadn't gotten very far before deciding to turn back.

Then I noticed Clint Hurdle walking up to the Pirates Office doors.  
Oh. Mah. Gawd.
I called out a "Good Morning, Sir!" to him and waved as I rode by. (DOH, it was early afternoon!!)
He called back, "How ya doin'? Love the helmet! Atta girl!"
Clearly, the "Atta girl!" was because he was in complete awe of my bad-assery.
I'm actually surprised he could tell I was a female under all those layers, gloves, gaiter, eye-protection, etc...


Oh, and I had the camera rolling too!





Go ahead and berate me for riding on the sidewalk. I'm naughty, I know.

Soupaneuring 6

 

When I got back to my desk, I enjoyed some homemade beet soup with yogurt. Not bad.

 I almost forgot to document it being so excited by the Clint Hurdle exchange!

2014 YTD Miles: 31.5
BMI: 25.3 

Icycle Bicycle 2014 and a spectacular Hades tile.

25 miles total in the cold, a very good day. I bumped into DB (whose wife is the former owner of Ruby) at the Casino and we made good conversation along the way to the South Side for the Icycle Bicycle ride.

On my way back into town, I thought I would do the grid ride in search of any remaining tiles. I found these two. 

Allies and Smithfield

 Boy, did this one ever cheer me up from a gloomy mood. Wow, look at the detail! Both of today's finds mention Toynbee Idea!

A spectacular find at Allies and Cherry, aptly placed right across from the Art Institute.

I think I found the best one last, I rode over nearly every asphalt street in the Golden Triangle and made no further discoveries. There are NINE new Hades/Toynbee tiles and a Stikman that I know of.
*sigh* what am I going to look for now?



I went back to the Allies and Market tile and got closeups of the text with the good camera, had Photoshop Panorama them together and adjusted the contrast in the hopes that I'd be able to read it. My eyes hurt now.

I have the documentary on the Toynbee tiles lined up in my Netflix queue.

 I couldn't resist getting this shot.

Goodbye, antlers. Maybe I should add Viking horns or a propeller?

2014 YTD Miles: 25 (this is the one and only day of the year that I'll be ahead of Vannevar in miles logged!)
BMI: 25.3