Biking
drorzel | May 12, 2013SteelyKid has a new prize possession: a training-wheel bike!
You can't quite hear what she says at the end of this, when she stops the bike, but it's "That should be a full video!" She knows her fan base.
On the way back, she wiped out (the first bad crash on the new bike) and has been much more cautious since. But she's practicing a lot (around the neighborhood, in the Field House, around the neighborhood again...), and will hopefully gain confidence.
Here's hoping your weekend brought you something a tenth as much fun...
lborkowski | March 15, 2012Yesterday, the Senate passed a two-year transportation bill by a vote of 74 to 22, putting us close to getting a reasonably good piece of legislation signed by March 31, when the current stopgap extension will expire. Last month, the House Natural Resources Committee approved a terrible bill that would have eliminated the current dedicated funding for public transportation, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has so far not brought it to the floor for a vote. The American Public Health Association and 15 other public-health groups wrote to Representatives urging a "no" vote on the House…
pronald | September 7, 2010 in 2007 Yonah opted out of a Bar Mitzvah. His alternative rite of passage was riding a bike from San Francisco to Washington DC with the rest of the family in tow.
His Dad, Matt, is a mediocre selling author whose most recent royalty check for his "breakthrough book" was only four figures. (Two of the figures standing to the right of the decimal point.) Undaunted, he has recently finished a memoir of their epic journey.
Read the first chapter here.
drorzel | April 26, 2008I went for a bike ride this morning, the first real bike ride of the year (I've biked to and from work a couple of times, but this was the first real ride just for the sake of riding). There was some pissy drizzle at the start, but by the time I got on the bike path headed for Lock 8, the sun came out, and it was a cool, pleasant, calm spring morning.
As I was tooling down the path, I realized that I had the bike one gear higher than I usually do on that stretch of path, but I didn't feel like I was working any harder than normal. "Gee, I guess I'm in better shape than I thought..." I said to…
drorzel | May 27, 2007Saturday, I went for a good long bike ride before it got hot, making it all the way to the end of the Erie Canal portion of the bike path. There's a "detour" that takes you to further path via some dirt roads, but I opted instead for the quiet stretch of path along the canal, that dead-ends at some railroad tracks.
It was a good choice, because I got to see a blue heron in flight along the path. They're really remarkably graceful birds, and, for the record, can happily cruise through the air at 14 mph.
Sunday's ride got off to a good start, and I was farther down the path than I've gone…
drorzel | May 20, 2007Saturday was a miserable cold and rainy day, and today wasn't a whole lot better. I took advantage of a brief spot of sun in the afternoon to get a short ride in, but it was awfully windy with dark clouds on the horizon, so I just rode around on local streets, so as not to end up five miles from home in a thunderstorm.
Total Distance: 5.39 miles
Average Speed: 13.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 27.56
Year-to-date totals:
Total Distance: 86.5 miles
Maximum Speed: 32.0 mph
Better luck next weekend, I guess...
drorzel | May 14, 2007Here's a picture of some pretty flowers:
These are from the ornatmental cherry tree in our front yard. Like all the other similar trees in the neighborhood, it's absolutely exploded over the past week.
Also, I rode my bike a bunch this weekend:
Saturday, I rode down to Lock 8, stopping for a few minutes to talk to another faculty member who was out with a group of students and community volunteers cleaning up one of the preserved locks of the original Erie Canal.
Total Distance: 17.41
Average Speed: 14.53
Maximum Speed: 24.62
Sunday, I went in the other direction on the bike path, and a…
drorzel | May 6, 2007In the two weeks since the previous report, I managed only two round-trips to campus, for a total of 9.6 miles. Either the weather was lousy, or I had things I needed to do that precluded riding the bike. I got a good ride in today, though:
Total Distance: 16.6 miles
Maximum Speed: 30.1 mph
Average Speed: 14.7 mph
The higher maximum speed reflects the presence of a really big hill at the start of the bike path (as does the ache in my legs when I climb the stairs)-- I probably could've gotten another mph or two out of that, if not for two people walking their inferior dogs on the path in…
drorzel | April 21, 2007One of my Christmas presents was a small mileage/ speed calculator for my bike, because there are few activities that can't be improved by making them nerdier. Thus, I am able to report on today's ride:
Total Distance: 17.1 miles
Maximum Speed: 23.5 mph
Average speed: 13.4 mph
I'm actually a little surprised by the distance-- the bike path route to Lock 8 is longer than I thought. I checked the calibration against the posted mile markers, though, and while the readout is a little high, it's only off by about 6% (the above numbers are corrected figures).
Why am I posting this? Well, why not…