Bicycling in Bloomington

My period of little bicycling continues. It’s been more than three weeks since I last did a long ride. Yesterday (Sunday), I didn’t ride because I was in Louisville watching my daughter participate in the Louisville Ironman. She finished and I am very happy for her. She’s been training for a year. In earlier posts, I described some rides we did as part of her training.

While she was on the bicycle segment, my son-in-law and I rode between two points of the course to cheer for her. The ride was about five miles each direction. We were on a rural road and the traffic was relatively heavy. More importantly, the vehicles were going very fast. I appreciate riding Bloomington more after the experience.

We also rode most of the run segment (2 out and back loops on the same street). The course was on a wide street with wide sidewalks. While I rarely ride on sidewalks, we did on Sunday because we did not want to interfere with the runners. We likely rode an additional 20 miles on the course. It was fun both to ride and to be able to cheer for her especially in the later parts of the “run.” Actually most were walking more than running by that point.

The course was on a wide, 4 lane street with sharrows. In my previous post, I mentioned that I found the sharrows on North Walnut difficult to see and interpret while driving and suggested that a sign would help drivers to interpret the sharrows. Louisville has these signs and I think it’s helpful to drivers.

 I did a standard morning ride this morning; the first time in over 2 weeks that I was able to ride. It was a warm morning and I didn’t make a strong effort to push myself. After 2 weeks off, it seemed better to spin than push hard.

Traffic conditions in Bloomington have changed significantly since my last ride. I had to wait longer at stop signs this morning both on the ride and on my commute to work. There are many more cars on the road. But, it’s really closer to the normal pattern for the year.

The start of the local school year brings an increase in traffic and school started last week. Today is “move-in” day for Indiana University, so there’s a lot of traffic and many people who aren’t familiar with Bloomington road patterns. The city and campus deploy 75 police officers to direct traffic around the university today and tomorrow. It’s necessary.

For a bicyclist, it means that more caution is needed. In general, the increased traffic travels slowly but drivers sometimes find themselves in situations where they need to make bad decisions to get where they need to go.

Next Monday, the first day of classes at IU, it will be worse for bicyclists. This week and the following two weeks, bicyclists beware!!

 I have not posted for 10 days mostly because I have not been on the bike much for the past two weeks. I don’t want this blog to appear to be abandoned so I’m posting today without too much to say.

Last week (August 6-10), I did some standard rides on Monday and Tuesday morning. Wednesday and Thursday, I ran in the morning. I commuted each day. Friday through Tuesday, I was travelling to/from the meetings in New York and attending the meetings.

This week (August 13-17) I didn’t ride but did commute Thursday and Friday. I’ll be away again until Tuesday, so no riding this weekend. I hoped to do some off-road riding on Saturday but it won’t work out.

Today, I was riding on Pete Ellis drive heading towards the Post Office when I noticed a sign by the bike/pedestrian trail that parallels 10^th St east of the IU campus (2^nd map; east of Eastgate Lane). It said Polly Grimshaw TR. I need to find more information about it because Polly was a colleague and friend. I complained about the poor condition of the trail in an earlier post.

Students are returning to campus now. Bicycling is a little more challenging with many new people in town trying to figure the goofy Bloomington street system.

 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.

In two or three posts, I will describe in some detail the conditions for bicycle riding on Bloomington streets. This is the first post. Later, I will describe the conditions for riding on Monroe County roads.

Bloomington Streets

Street surfaces: In general, the street surfaces are good. Bloomington has mild, short winters, so the freeze/thaw cycles do not create many potholes. And, few potholes are in the area where bicycles normally travel. The major potholes are usually repaired quickly.

The streets have limited alligatoring. Occasionally, the patching is uneven. Through most of the city streets, bicyclists on fat tires can proceed without much concern about potholes and severely uneven surfaces. Those on skinny tires can usually negotiate these problems very easily.

Street debris: Bloomington has very dirty (FILTHY) streets. The right sides of the streets are filled will all sorts of debris - gravel, limbs, glass, stones, mud, litter. Most intersections have gravel. Bicyclists need to continually looking for problems on the street surface.

When I first moved to Bloomington, I mentioned to many people that I was surprised by how dirty the streets were. When travelling, I compared the city streets to Bloomington streets and all others were much clearer with far less debris. Even in more “questionable” areas. Last May, I was in Manhattan for a few days. I noticed again how much cleaner the NYC streets were than those in Bloomington.

Most locals did not agree that the streets are dirty, but few ever see the streets except from their cars. It might be thought that dirty streets are a policy of the local government. It’s certainly not a policy to keep them clean.

Last summer, some local government employees spilled oil on a street near our house. They then covered the spill with gravel and sand but did not remove either. I complained to the city government about it and they denied it. Only after two weeks of “discussing” the issue did they recognize what happened. But, they still didn’t clean it. The oil and gravel are now in the local streams.

In Bloomington, stupidity and incompetence do not disqualify anyone for either elected or appointed positions. I’ll describe some similar issues with city government in other posts about city streets.

For bicyclists, the street conditions mean that riding at the far right of the street can often be hazardous because of the debris. Unfortunately, many inexperienced bicyclists stay too far to the right on the streets to avoid impeding cars. In Bloomington, the street hazards are at least as bad as the problems caused by local drivers and the far right is not necessarily safe.

Sunday, June 3, 2007 - 8 AM - 11:15 AM (approximate)

I rode about 50 miles today. It was 10 more miles than planned but it was faster than expected, so I added a few more miles. The pace for the first 43 miles was about 15.3. I wandered a bit and then warmed down the last 1.5 miles, so the final pace was 15. 

The route was very similar to The Long Ride .  Spicewood, Smith Rd, 45, Boltinghouse, Anderson, up the Forest Rd, Hindustan, cross 37 to Bottom Rd, cross 37 again at Kinser Pike, Rogers St through Bloomington. At the bridge work south of town, I turned into a development; after a few wrong turns, backtracking, I found That Rd. Through Clear Creek, Fairfax, Schacht, Harrell, to Jackson Creek school, home on Sare.

One goal I had for the ride was to keep my HR low and I was successful. My HR going up the hill in the Forest was about 15 beats less than last week. Going up the Hindustan Hill, it never exceeded 125. It rarely exceeded 150.

The Sunday morning rides generally have little traffic and I experienced very little on this ride. I would guess that no more than 15 cars passed me going the same direction. From the time I turned off 45 until I reached 17th St on Kinser Pike, only 3 cars passed me.

During The Long Ride , my daughter and I were able to ride side by side for at least 2/3 of the ride. While Saturday morning generally has more traffic than Sunday, it was not enough to really affect much of the ride.

Friends in other parts of the country tell me how much vehicular traffic affects their rides. At least for rides in the rural parts of Monroe County, the traffic usually affects the rides very minimally.

Sunday morning traffic seems to be mostly people going to church. The “Buicks” pass slowly and cautiously. The SUVs pass quickly and perhaps more dangerously. The “Buicks” tend to be older couples who likely allow enough time to get to church. The SUVs seem to be stupids who are late for church.

Let me describe my morning commute. Of course, it’s the reverse of the evening commute but the conditions are a little different.

• I leave my neighborhood - Spicewood and go north on Sare Rd. Sare Rd has a quick downhill and I usually get 25+ mph on it.
• Then - the narrow, high-speed portion of the ride - about .25 mile where I try to exceed 20 mph because of vehicle traffic.
• Next, a four-lane high speed street. The posted speed limit is 30 mph but cars regularly exceed 50 mph. The right lane is wide, so there’s plenty of room for a bike.
• I need to make a left turn off the street, so as I approach the turn, I continually check behind me for a clear spot. When I find one, I dash across the two lanes to a turn lane.
• Then, through a quiet neighborhood with 2 short uphills.
• Past a shopping center, cross a four-lane street, and into a quiet neighborhood.
• When I leave the neighborhood, I have a short ride through grass, through a parking lot, and then a 50 yd walkway to the bike rack.
• Finish at Eigenmann Hall.

The commute is a little more than three miles. It seems more uphill going to campus than going home. My biggest challenge is to arrive without sweating too much. Many summer mornings, I’m kinda damp when I arrive.

 Memorial Day 2007 

I didn’t ride today. It was raining this morning and I expected the “48 hour bonk,” so I decided to stay off the bike. I’ve been running/riding for more than 30 years so I know that 48 hours after a hard effort, I bonk. I’m rarely wrong.

I ran about 4 miles at an easy pace. Kept my HR at 130 or lower except for a small hill where it went to 135. However, if someone asked me to estimate my HR during the run, I would have been way off. My legs were stiff and tired today, so a short run was just the right thing to do.

During the run, I noticed how little traffic there was. In general, my rides have relatively little traffic. It might be because of the time and routes I chose to ride. For example, on the big ride on Saturday, my daughter and I rode side by side for most of the ride because few cars passed us.

When I talk to friends and colleagues from other parts of the country about riding, they often comment on how traffic conditions affect their riding. I realize how nice it is in the Bloomington area to ride without having many concerns about traffic.

Unfortunately, the drivers are not as nice as the traffic conditions. That’s another post.

My big toe still hurts but I am a little more confident that I can do the “Big Ride” with my daughter on Saturday. Here’s why:

• I learned that a little slower speeds, a bit more spin, and pointing my toes up on the downstroke seem to reduce the discomfort.
• I took ibuprofen before starting. About 45 minutes into the ride, the pain was reduced. However, it might be the endorphins rather than the meds. I say so because during the ride, a driver pulled out in front of me and I chased her to the next stop sign. I rode up to her window and reminded her of good driving behavior and described my feelings regarding bad drivers. While chasing her, my toe didn’t hurt.
• I also learned that I shouldn’t take ibuprofen on an empty stomach.

 The ride was pleasant. I repeated a hill in a local neighborhood (Sherwood Oaks) to determine the best way to climb. I rode for about an hour. I had to stay local because I don’t have spare tube. I’ll get one later today when I visit my LBS (Bicycle Garage) to get a hitch rack and some needed supplies.