oops

You know what sucks? Riding to work on a Wednesday and thinking to yourself, "damn, this is a lot harder than it was on Monay when I rode in. Maybe I didn't get enough sleep last night or something. I dunno. I felt fine when I woke up. But this is downright hard."

Then you know what makes that better? Realizing as you're walking into the office that your front brake was rubbing against your rim for the whole ride in. That'll teach me to make sure the brakes are adjusted properly before riding in.

how long should a bee sting last

So, it's 5 days since I got stung by a bee on my way into work. But I still have a huge red circle around the area that looks like it _just_ happened. I have a baby doctor appointment today at the end of the day, so maybe I'll swing by the allergist's office on my way home. I'm supposed to get my allergy shots by tomorrow anyway.

Open Jersey Riding

My morning bike commute starts out with a few miles of either flat riding, or gentle slope downhill. Then it turns uphill on its way to Reston. Once in Reston, the last 1/4 or 1/5 of the trip is pretty flat again. When I leave my place, I'm not warmed up yet, and since it's still spring like temps (50's-60's) I'm quite comfortable. But by the time I start the uphill climb, my body is warmed up from the 3 or 4 miles I've just ridden. And I'm not exactly light, so I have to work harder to go uphill, so I start to warm up. I usually unzip my jersey a little to get some circulation on my chest. Well, that's all well and good until a multi-legged and winged creature gets caught in my jersey. Granted, it's not their fault. They're just happily buzzing along their merry way when all of a sudden this fat cyclist comes by doing 17 MPH and WHACK!!! they're caught inside my jersey. Now since my skin isn't hard like a windshield and I'm not going 35-55 MPH like a car, this impact isn't enough to kill them. So now I've got his highly upset creature inside of my jeresy. And what do these types of creatures do when upset or feel threatened? They sting or bite, of course. So I've got a nice welt just below my right shoulder today.

I've been riding in to work pretty regularly now. On days that I don't have one of a variety of appointments scheduled, or if it's pouring rain when I get up anyway. I'm definitely noticing I sleep better at night when I exercise regularly. And now that my body is getting used to it more, I'm also not as wiped out during the day after I ride in now. I got a bit of a late start this morning and didn't actually leave my house until 9:00, but was rewarded with some cool wildlife on the trail. When I was hiking the Appalachian Trail back in 2000, it was better to leave camp earlier than everyone else to see wildlife. But this morning, I got a late start, but still got to see something I've not seen before on the W&OD. A pretty good sized turtle just walking along the path. I'm not positive, but I think it was a snapping turtle judging from the business end of his mouth. He was probably 10-12 inches across the back of his shell. When I was riding home a few days ago, I saw his smaller cousin, a terrapin on the trail. Terrapins are similar to turtles, but from what I've been told, they're more landlubbers than pure turtles are. But, hey, what do I know?

Anyway. After I crossed Hunter Mill Road, there was another "first" for me. I saw a tree frog in the middle of the trail. He was just hanging out, chilling in the warm late spring morning sunshine. Well, maybe warming instead of chilling I guess.

And my last first with wildlife was the chipmunk that made a mad dash for the other side of the trail just as I was coming along about about 15 mph. Now, I weigh 240 pounds. And I'd be suprised if that chipmunk weighed even 1 pound. But he was determined. He dashed out, realized I was barreling down on him, so he cut right, then tried to cut left in front of me. But he misjudged my speed and ran right into my front wheel and bounced off. Luckily, I didn't decapitate him, or even really hurt him at all. I glaced back as I rode on past him. He was sitting there in the middle of the trail, panting, with that "HOLY CRAP!!!" look in his eyes. Then he hopped on across the trail and went about his business.

A coworker recently blogged about how he really likes silence when he goes sailing. My rides into work in the morning are kind of the same for me. They let me really reflect on what's going on in my life and/or prepare for what I'm going to be working on that day. Oddly though, my rides home aren't quite the same for some reason. There's definitely a lot of other people on the trails during my ride home than the ride in. So, I'm having to pay attention to where people are moving, make sure they know I'm approaching them ("on your left"), etc. And the car traffic seems to be more heavy than in the morning too. I guess that's people going out shopping, out to eat, in addition to people just driving home.

Anyway, I like my rides into work. It's cooler and it's a nice ME-time...