Bicycling in Bloomington

 Tomorrow I leave for a short vacation, so I won’t be back on the bike (except for my commute home tonight) until Monday. This morning, I did my usual ride - Old 446 but it was both cautious and quick.

Cautious first - a few years ago, I crashed my bike and broke my collarbone on the day before we were scheduled to go on vacation. It was during a period when I was doing more off-road riding. I was testing my skills by riding at the edge of a road that had a curb and trying to keep the bike within a foot of the curb. Going down a hill, I saw an unexpected road hazard (it shouldn’t be unexpected in Bloomington). I swung out to avoid it but quickly remembered that I hadn’t been monitoring the road for approaching cars. I swung back and caught the wheel in a little crack. It caused me to go into the curb and over the handlebars.

I broke my collarbone. I walked home (about .75 mile), and drove a manual transmission car to my doctor’s office. It was challenging to shift without being able to move my arm. But, it’s not nearly as impressive as Tyler Hamilton who rode most of 2003 the Tour de France with a broken collarbone.

So, I rode cautiously today. I waited a little longer before crossing intersections, and I didn’t make any quick decisions. I experienced a very considerate driver today. Travelling west on Moore’s Pike, I needed to turn south on Smith. I kept looking back for a break in traffic but there were many cars behind me. A driver slowed to let me pull across the lane for the left turn. I wonder if he was also a rider who could see what I needed to do.

Quick second - I did the ride in about 45 minutes, which is as fast as I ever ride it. I think it was quick because my legs weren’t tired from a long ride on Sunday. Also, I put air in the tires. I’d guess that I last put air in them in April. Yesterday, I stopped on my ride to work to see if the rear tire was flat because the rim was almost on the road.

My speed was consistently over 18 mph and my HR was in Zone 3 which is about 140 - 150 for me. The ride was essentially 6 - 8 long sprints. The speed was about 2-3 mph faster than my typical ride. I’m already looking forward to getting back on the bike on Monday morning.