I'm so glad I didn't drive my car today

Lately, I've been on the early shift, which means I'm getting off  work around 3 pm.
This is great as I've got swim practice from 5:30 to 6:30, so the plan today was to ride the bike to work, then come home, shove the gym stuff into the panniers and head out.

It's 6 miles to the gym (downhill there, uphill back), and when I left work the wind was blowing so I almost talked myself out of taking the bike.

"Oh, it's windy. I'll be hurting coming back, and I have to run tomorrow morning."

It's close enough to summer that the trip home is in the daylight (not that riding in the dark ever stopped me, but it does make a handy excuse), so eventually I won (or lost, depending on how you look at it) the argument with myself and rode the bike to the gym.

I'm so very glad I didn't chicken out and take the car.

The wind was dying down a bit as I headed out, so it certainly wasn't unmanageable and I had a lovely ride under the blue spring sky (the sky in LA is normally sort of a taupe color - the winds blow all the smog out) down to the gym, where I had a wonderful swim with the new coach.

Then, I sat in the steam room, hit the showers and headed back home.

The ride home was just before sunset, so the sky was turning that nice orange color, and the mockingbirds were starting to sing - I love mockingbirds when they're not imitating car alarms outside my bedroom window at 3 am - and these were singing their hearts out (or warning other birds away from the tree. It's all good), treating me to a car alarm-free tune.

I had enough of a tailwind that I didn't even notice the gentle hill, and got home just as the sun set.

Just think what I would have missed had I driven. 

Wow, didn't see that one coming.

Between road biking and commuting, I put in a respectable number of miles on the bicycle.

Consequently, my legs are pretty damn strong.

Strong enough that usually weights don't make me sore the next day, so when I was at the gym Sunday pre-Superbowl party, I decided to do the workout that they call 'the board' which is posted on, natch, a board on the workout floor.

This one looked good, but not super hard for someone with legs of steel:

In case the photo isn't showing, that's "Push, Pull Squat"

3 x 20 push ups
3 x 20 cable chest presses

3 x 20 seated row

3 x 20 lat pulls

3 x 20 body weight squats
3 x 20 body weight alternate lunges

I added in some ab work, but holy crap.

That easy-looking workout kicked my ass. It's Monday night and I'm still sore.

I knew the shoulders would be sore because of the push ups, but they're way less sore than my quads.

Masters swim tonight was an adventure - of course we were doing sprints. I ran out of gas about 45  minutes in and only have myself to blame.

However, in the future, if I need a really good quick workout (this one took under 45 minutes), I know what I'll be doing.

Work eats my life!

Work is normally pretty slow in December, but for some reason, this year it's been insane. I'm averaging 70 hours per week, which leaves very little time for enjoying the wonderful cool winter weather here in Southern California.

The bikes are gathering dust while I slave away (I'm at work before dawn and off after the sun sets so I'm driving my car, which I try never to do), but the overtime will make a nice check when I get back from seeing my family in Tennessee over the holiday.


Whichever holiday you celebrate, I hope it's wonderful!

Why I need a step-through frame

My dress gets all bunched up on the bike. Lucky for me, I always wear bike shorts under said dress when I'm riding the bike, so no flashing.

Grocery bag pannier official road test

Yesterday, I rode from my home in West LA to my community garden plot in West Hollywood. It's about 18 miles round trip, and doesn't have any really big hills - although the gentle rolling swells of asphalt on Santa Monica Blvd in Century City are daunting when one's got a headwind.

Since I was bringing my long-handled pruners to cut up my fava bean plants, I chose to take the new grocery bag pannier so I could just drop the pruners in and leave the handles sticking up out of the bag. Also I was bringing a bin of kitchen scraps to dump into the composter that's in the garden plot.

The grocery bag pannier is way easier to get on and off the bike and the open top design makes access easier, but it doesn't feel as stable as the heavier duty compression type panniers, especially on the beat up pavement of Los Angeles' notoriously bad roads. The bag shook a lot as we rolled over potholes and steel plates, and I started to get concerned that the plastic clips holding it to the rack were going to break.

I made it to the garden, did my thing and then stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home. They had five pound bags of pears, but I didn't feel the pannier was sturdy enough to hold them, so I just got a bottle of water and a discounted bottle of tempranillo. Yum.

So, verdict? Good for short trips, but I don't think I'll use it for a cross town haul again.


The ride home was into a strong headwind the entire way, so I spent most of the ride trying to find a gear which would allow me to make some progress but not burn out my quads.

I never managed to find it, so by the time I got home my legs felt like lead, which I guess is good exercise. 

REI gives back - to me!

One of the things that  I love about REI is the annual dividend.

I take my little certificate in, pick something out and get it for either free or at a greatly reduced cost.
This year, I got this:


A Novara grocery bag pannier!

After they applied my dividend, I owed them a whopping 23 cents. Sweet.

I already have a pair of panniers, but they're heavy waterproof zip top compression dealies that are great on long trips (they stop load shift), but I wanted something that was a bit more short errand friendly.

This one has shoulder straps, and is about the size of a grocery bag (hence the name), so I can just throw it on the back rack and not have to do the squeeze and zip of the big panniers.

 I love you, REI!