2 posts tagged “google”
I rode alone to work this morning - first time trusting myself to remember the route. There are something like 35 turns to remember, and I only consulted the routesheet twice. Not bad.
Oh but the wind. There is some weird humid tropical thing happening to the Bay Area weather today, so the wind was blowing straight up from the south. That is, blowing straight into my face the whole way without anyone to draft. I could tell things might be rough by SFO, already over an hour in and feeling my legs start to complain under me. Ended up pedaling for three hours and arriving, um, tired.
Still, that's three hours of riding before even thinking about work. I'll take it.
Riding music today:
I've been riding once a week down to Google with a group of coworkers (cycling is, after all, the new golf). The route we take stays flat and along the bay - about 40 miles of access roads and multi-use paths. We're doing it in about two and a half hours, which is just an amazing way to start a work day. Just amazing.
This week Thursday was Bike to Work day, the annual event designed to show people just how easy it can be to forgo the car and pedal to their jobs. We had a great showing - over 30 of us left the City at 6am in chatty peloton.
About an hour in, a few of us decided to split with the slow-moving group and sprint ahead. We formed a tight paceline and brought our speed up to 40kpm. Each of us were taking minute-long pulls and we work working as a team and it was so fast and fun. Nobody spoke and we raced down the peninsula.
As we roared past the Sun Microsystems campus, the path we were on split and the group cornered right. I didn't see this, saw the wheel in front of me cut my line, and I yanked the bars hard to keep from hitting it. In an instant I was in the air, prescient enough to tuck my arms under rather than try to brace, and skidded across the pavement. Ouch.
I popped up, checked the bike for damage (none), checked my bones for cracks (none), and we were back in the line and up to speed in no time. I was sporting a nice gash on my knee and some fine looking streaks of blood down my calf. Played up big later when the rest of the group rolled in. A little pity goes a long way.
This week, we may take the Skyline route. A few miles long and some great hills to climb. And people warned me about this whole commuting thing...
