The following news flash was posted in the comments over at Twisted Spoke upon further investigation into this article about Levi Leipheimer's performance in the prologue time trial at Paris-Nice. I post it here in it's entirety for your reading enjoyment.
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You have stumbled onto Bruyneel’s master plan alluded to in the Nike commercial. The plan is not to clone Lance repeatedly but rather to morph the rest of the team into hybrid-Armstrongs with the Most desired powers of both (kinda like a liger).
If you’ve ever seen ‘Multiplicity’ with Michael Keaton you know that the clone never comes out exactly like the original and that a copy of even the hardest working clone will be completely unusable.
By metamorphosing other riders into hybrid-Armstrongs he can pick and choose the best traits of the peloton and make them more Lance-like. We have seen the TT abilities of Levi-Armstrong but what about the climbing ability of Chechu-Armstrong or the ultra-super domestiques Horner-Armstrong and Popo-Armstrong.
Yes, The Shack is going to be a truly formidable team come this July.
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More has been revealed due to the un-timely and unfortunate loss of Gert Steegmans due to a broken collarbone. An unknown source has quoted Johan Bruyneel as saying “not again, this could ruin everything.”. This is obviously a reference to a similar injury Lance suffered last season. After an extensive fact checking session with my magic 8-ball I have confirmed the following details:
Bruyneel’s plan was to accomplish the Merckxean task of capturing all 3 jerseys. The Gert-Armstrong hybrid was to take the Green, Chechu the mountains and in the event that Lance himself could not take the yellow, He would still have cards to play with Levi-Armstrong or Andreas K-Armstrong.
What ultimately brought this to light was when it was revealed that the Gert-Armstrong project was the prototype and had been in the works for some time. This was the precipitous for the problems he had at Katusha. The fear was that DNA testing would uncover the Hybrid-Armstrong DNA and blow the lid off the entire project.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
I Am an Awesome Driver
Due to the rate change DART enacted back in September I have not been able to financially justify riding my bike to work since October. Sadly, it is cheaper to drive. As such, I haven't had my usual hour of daily reflection to write. For anyone who actually follows this page, I apologize. As it happens, I am currently sitting outside the Tarrant County Tax Assessor's office patiently waiting for them to open and recently had a driving experience that needs to be embellished. The long story short version of this is, I am an awesome driver and anyone who drove 183 eastbound through Irving Texas last Friday morning should appreciate that fact.
Our story begins on just another Friday. I am driving to work at around 7am up 183 through Irving toward Dallas. Coming past the Irving Mall area, around Beltline for anyone vaguely familiar with the area, I get stuck in the far left lane behind a copper-grey compact SUV. I want to say a Hyundai Santa Fe but it could be any one of a few different "I don't know if I'm a waggon or SUV" things that Toyota pioneered with the Rav4. I am now resigned to cruising at not quite the speed limit but still faster than the next lane over.
Here is an artist rendering of where I am in traffic at this point.
As you can see, I have just come upon an opening in traffic at which I may be able to get around the not-quite-a-SUV. Realizing this I change lanes and move to pass as shown below.
As you can see in this extremely detailed image, there is a pale blue Chevy 1500 moving up quickly on my right. I recognize this as a pickup that was previously in the middle lane a few miles back. Apparently he found an opening to his right as well and is also seizing an opportunity to move up in traffic.
About this time I notice that the car that was behind me in the left lane is flashing his lights like a mad man. I find this odd, but think little of it. I then hear a long honk at the same time I see the pseudo-SUV encroach upon my driving space in the middle lane. This forces me to take evasive action.
This forces me into the right lane which is already occupied by the previously mentioned pale blue Chevy. As you can see from the lovely image above, a collision has occurred.
In my haste to avoid damaging the front end of my car, I completely forgot about the pickup I had seen only seconds before. Upon taking evasive action I was greeted by the surprise of a loud metal on metal crunching noise accompanied by a jarring to my right and the squeal of tires. The squeal I heard was both of the trucks tires on my right rear quarter-panel and of my tires on the road.
I was sideways.
I am now in a very similar situation to what the police call a PIT maneuver. They use it to spin vehicles during a pursuit in order to bring them to an abrupt end. This is bad, as you can see, there are cars in all 3 lanes behind me. If I spin, it ruins a lot of peoples days, not to mention mine.
Instinctively I turn into the skid and separate from the truck. The rear end kicks out to the right and I am now fish-tailed the opposite direction.
I go through a series of corrections and fishtails from left to right and eventually managed to get straightened out and into one lane.
At this point I know I got into the truck but am still unsure if I hit anyone else in my valiant and skillful save. I see the pickup pulling off around O'Connor in my mirror, and I look to see what the NQASUV is going to do. Apparently he's going to keep going. As the initial shock of what just happened wears off, I realize I need to pull off and see if I can get in contact with the driver of the truck. I manage to get off the highway about 1/2 a mile before the Carl road exit and wait for the pickup to show up.
after about 3-4 minutes of waiting, watching cars go by and surveying the damage I call the police to see if anyone else has called in. I explain my situation to a nonplussed dispatcher and tell her that if they want to send an officer I can meet them at the McDonald's at Carl road.
Here is a picture I took of the damage while waiting.
About this point I realized my registration had expired and fully anticipate the ticket I will be shortly receiving. I was greeted by 3 officers in 2 cars about 10 minutes later. I told them my story, they read it back, I corrected them. This happened about 3 times, I assume that this is a police trick to make sure that they have an accurate story.
One officer, who didn't seem to want to be involved in such a minor issue decided he was going to go look for the truck. The other two, who seemed much more friendly complemented and thanked me for not loosing control and saving them a lot of paperwork. That is why I am an awesome driver.
The other driver? Who knows, the police never received a call. The only other call they got was from a witness, presumably the car that was behind me that was flashing and honking. They think it was probably someone who was driving without insurance (or without a green card). Either way, if he doesn't report it I won't so it doesn't go on my record, doesn't go on my insurance saves the cops a few hours of paperwork and I just have to live with this.
As for the registration, all I heard about that was "by the way, we noticed your registration is out. Please get that taken care of". As it happens, this is why I am sitting outside the Tarrant County Tax Assessor's office.
Our story begins on just another Friday. I am driving to work at around 7am up 183 through Irving toward Dallas. Coming past the Irving Mall area, around Beltline for anyone vaguely familiar with the area, I get stuck in the far left lane behind a copper-grey compact SUV. I want to say a Hyundai Santa Fe but it could be any one of a few different "I don't know if I'm a waggon or SUV" things that Toyota pioneered with the Rav4. I am now resigned to cruising at not quite the speed limit but still faster than the next lane over.
Here is an artist rendering of where I am in traffic at this point.
As you can see, I have just come upon an opening in traffic at which I may be able to get around the not-quite-a-SUV. Realizing this I change lanes and move to pass as shown below.
As you can see in this extremely detailed image, there is a pale blue Chevy 1500 moving up quickly on my right. I recognize this as a pickup that was previously in the middle lane a few miles back. Apparently he found an opening to his right as well and is also seizing an opportunity to move up in traffic.
About this time I notice that the car that was behind me in the left lane is flashing his lights like a mad man. I find this odd, but think little of it. I then hear a long honk at the same time I see the pseudo-SUV encroach upon my driving space in the middle lane. This forces me to take evasive action.
This forces me into the right lane which is already occupied by the previously mentioned pale blue Chevy. As you can see from the lovely image above, a collision has occurred.
In my haste to avoid damaging the front end of my car, I completely forgot about the pickup I had seen only seconds before. Upon taking evasive action I was greeted by the surprise of a loud metal on metal crunching noise accompanied by a jarring to my right and the squeal of tires. The squeal I heard was both of the trucks tires on my right rear quarter-panel and of my tires on the road.
I was sideways.
I am now in a very similar situation to what the police call a PIT maneuver. They use it to spin vehicles during a pursuit in order to bring them to an abrupt end. This is bad, as you can see, there are cars in all 3 lanes behind me. If I spin, it ruins a lot of peoples days, not to mention mine.
Instinctively I turn into the skid and separate from the truck. The rear end kicks out to the right and I am now fish-tailed the opposite direction.
I go through a series of corrections and fishtails from left to right and eventually managed to get straightened out and into one lane.
At this point I know I got into the truck but am still unsure if I hit anyone else in my valiant and skillful save. I see the pickup pulling off around O'Connor in my mirror, and I look to see what the NQASUV is going to do. Apparently he's going to keep going. As the initial shock of what just happened wears off, I realize I need to pull off and see if I can get in contact with the driver of the truck. I manage to get off the highway about 1/2 a mile before the Carl road exit and wait for the pickup to show up.
after about 3-4 minutes of waiting, watching cars go by and surveying the damage I call the police to see if anyone else has called in. I explain my situation to a nonplussed dispatcher and tell her that if they want to send an officer I can meet them at the McDonald's at Carl road.
Here is a picture I took of the damage while waiting.
About this point I realized my registration had expired and fully anticipate the ticket I will be shortly receiving. I was greeted by 3 officers in 2 cars about 10 minutes later. I told them my story, they read it back, I corrected them. This happened about 3 times, I assume that this is a police trick to make sure that they have an accurate story.
One officer, who didn't seem to want to be involved in such a minor issue decided he was going to go look for the truck. The other two, who seemed much more friendly complemented and thanked me for not loosing control and saving them a lot of paperwork. That is why I am an awesome driver.
The other driver? Who knows, the police never received a call. The only other call they got was from a witness, presumably the car that was behind me that was flashing and honking. They think it was probably someone who was driving without insurance (or without a green card). Either way, if he doesn't report it I won't so it doesn't go on my record, doesn't go on my insurance saves the cops a few hours of paperwork and I just have to live with this.
As for the registration, all I heard about that was "by the way, we noticed your registration is out. Please get that taken care of". As it happens, this is why I am sitting outside the Tarrant County Tax Assessor's office.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Cost: The Other Annoyance
Now that we are about 2/3 of the way through October I have started thinking more and more about the other annoyance of mixed mode commuting. This is the big one, cost.
Currently ITTET with gas prices moderately low, it costs me more to commute in by train as it would to drive. To break it down, if I were to drive it would be about 18.5 miles each way. We'll say 40 a day for simplicity. I have calculated my fuel mileage at between 27 and 29 MPG depending on my driving style. I have done this with every fill up and its fairly consistent but for the purpose of this exercise, we'll say I get 25. This means I use 1.6 gallons of fuel per day. At 2.30/gal that works out to 3.68/day to drive. If you figure that in the average work month you have about 20 days, that's about 73.60 per month.
DART, in their infinite wisdom decided that back on September 14th they would up their rates. Citing low ridership, the rate for a all zones "premium" pass went from $5/day to $7.50. The monthly version of this pass went from $80 to over $100. This is the only pass that includes TRE access there is no TRE only option. If I were to purchase a ticket on a per day basis it would actually cost me twice as much to ride the Train as it would to drive.
Now, I don't so much mind that it costs me more to ride the train, though I probably should. What really gets to me is that there is a. no TRE only option, and b. they raised the rates due to "low ridership". Perhaps there is some greater logic in there somewhere, but if you aren't able to get enough people to ride, how is a 50 percent increase in the rates going to help.
Currently ITTET with gas prices moderately low, it costs me more to commute in by train as it would to drive. To break it down, if I were to drive it would be about 18.5 miles each way. We'll say 40 a day for simplicity. I have calculated my fuel mileage at between 27 and 29 MPG depending on my driving style. I have done this with every fill up and its fairly consistent but for the purpose of this exercise, we'll say I get 25. This means I use 1.6 gallons of fuel per day. At 2.30/gal that works out to 3.68/day to drive. If you figure that in the average work month you have about 20 days, that's about 73.60 per month.
DART, in their infinite wisdom decided that back on September 14th they would up their rates. Citing low ridership, the rate for a all zones "premium" pass went from $5/day to $7.50. The monthly version of this pass went from $80 to over $100. This is the only pass that includes TRE access there is no TRE only option. If I were to purchase a ticket on a per day basis it would actually cost me twice as much to ride the Train as it would to drive.
Now, I don't so much mind that it costs me more to ride the train, though I probably should. What really gets to me is that there is a. no TRE only option, and b. they raised the rates due to "low ridership". Perhaps there is some greater logic in there somewhere, but if you aren't able to get enough people to ride, how is a 50 percent increase in the rates going to help.
Monday, October 19, 2009
A Departure from Protocol
When I started writing this blog, all of a week or two ago, I swore to myself that I would do everything I could to keep it about the bike. I wanted to keep work home and family issues off of it. Unfortunately the events of this morning have resulted in a situation where I feel compelled to put my feelings on paper, or in pixels as the case may be. I do this because I know however bad my day is, its going to be 10 times worse for my wife.
This morning the eldest of my three 1 year olds woke up screaming at about 5:15am. As any parent knows, it is not entirely uncommon a 1 year old to wake up in the middle of the night. On this morning, I had been up with the oldest (here fore C), and the middle (N) already. The youngest (Z) generally ends up in bed with my wife and I as he is the most consistent, getting up nightly only a few hours after being put down.
Generally if they wake up between 1 and 4, I'm not to concerned as I can take them into the living room and we'll crash out on the lay-z-boy for an hour or so. The problem with 5am is that I start getting ready for work at about 5:30. This gives me 50 minutes to do everything I need to do to get out the door with 20 min to catch the train. As previously mentioned, I can make it in 15, but that is at TT pace with a dead wind. 20 min affords me time to eat my 1/2 a bagel and factor in adverse weather conditions such as todays 10 kt head wind.
When someone wakes up after 5, I will usually grab my alarm clock and take it to the lay-z-boy with me in the hope that I can get them sufficiently back to sleep before my alarm goes off. Unfortunately, this morning C woke up N as well. This means that my wife is now in bed with two babies, while I'm in the comfy chair with C.
When 5:30 rolled around C was asleep. That is, until I laid him back down in bed. At that moment he awoke and again began to fuss. Having foregone getting everything ready to go the night before so that I could take Z to bed and give my wife some down time, I knew that I would be rushed. I checked in with my wife to see if N was asleep and if I could move him into Z's bed, which is in our room. He was asleep, up to the point where I tried to pick him up. This woke up Z.
As everyone was now awake, we decided to try N in Z's crib, and C in bed with mom and Z while dad gets dressed for work. This resulted in dad finding everyone still awake and N crying for Mommy when I got out. We then tried switching out N and C while dad got packed to no avail. I know of no worse feeling than walking out the door with my wife being left with one child crying in a crib and two others in bed with her 2 hours before they normally get up knowing full well that now matter how bad of a day I have, hers will be worse.
This morning the eldest of my three 1 year olds woke up screaming at about 5:15am. As any parent knows, it is not entirely uncommon a 1 year old to wake up in the middle of the night. On this morning, I had been up with the oldest (here fore C), and the middle (N) already. The youngest (Z) generally ends up in bed with my wife and I as he is the most consistent, getting up nightly only a few hours after being put down.
Generally if they wake up between 1 and 4, I'm not to concerned as I can take them into the living room and we'll crash out on the lay-z-boy for an hour or so. The problem with 5am is that I start getting ready for work at about 5:30. This gives me 50 minutes to do everything I need to do to get out the door with 20 min to catch the train. As previously mentioned, I can make it in 15, but that is at TT pace with a dead wind. 20 min affords me time to eat my 1/2 a bagel and factor in adverse weather conditions such as todays 10 kt head wind.
When someone wakes up after 5, I will usually grab my alarm clock and take it to the lay-z-boy with me in the hope that I can get them sufficiently back to sleep before my alarm goes off. Unfortunately, this morning C woke up N as well. This means that my wife is now in bed with two babies, while I'm in the comfy chair with C.
When 5:30 rolled around C was asleep. That is, until I laid him back down in bed. At that moment he awoke and again began to fuss. Having foregone getting everything ready to go the night before so that I could take Z to bed and give my wife some down time, I knew that I would be rushed. I checked in with my wife to see if N was asleep and if I could move him into Z's bed, which is in our room. He was asleep, up to the point where I tried to pick him up. This woke up Z.
As everyone was now awake, we decided to try N in Z's crib, and C in bed with mom and Z while dad gets dressed for work. This resulted in dad finding everyone still awake and N crying for Mommy when I got out. We then tried switching out N and C while dad got packed to no avail. I know of no worse feeling than walking out the door with my wife being left with one child crying in a crib and two others in bed with her 2 hours before they normally get up knowing full well that now matter how bad of a day I have, hers will be worse.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Colder Weather This Way Comes
There was a bit of a chill in the air this morning, it seems that autumn has arrived here in North Texas. This means its time to start pulling the warmer riding gear out of their summer storage. This got me thinking about a tech article I read on VeloNews not too long ago http://velonews.com/article/99202.
It seems that Campagnolo is now trying to muscle its way in to the high end (or more accurately high priced) clothing market currently dominated by the likes of Assos and Ralpha. I do not question Campy's place in the component market, some will argue that they make the best components available to the general populous. Personally, I wouldn't know as I've never had the luxury of riding a bike so equipped. I've always been a Shimano man myself, not necessarily because I'm a fan, more so because that's what the bike came with and I've never been able to afford replacing an entire groupo at the same time. Shimano's compatibility between different component levels was a big help in building a better group piece by piece. I will admit, 10 speed Dura-ace deraileurs with 9 speed Tiagra shifters were my running gear for a few months. But I digress, I was talking about high end cycling attire and more specifically, Campy's entrance into the market.
It seems that Campy has decided that if you are going to make an impact on the high fashion world of road cycling, you should start big. They now offer a cycling jacket that retails for the modest sum of $600. In addition they have also put out two jerseys and matching bibs for $400 and $380 respectively. At over $1300 for all three, this puts Campy easily on par with most offerings from Assos, and only a few steps below Ralpha on the "my kit costs more than your bike" scale.
While I can be as smug as the next guy when it comes to bike "culture" snobbery, I honestly can't see where a price like this comes from. High tech fabrics and R&D is expensive, but paying $1300 for a cycling kit, even a cold weather one is like putting 18" rims on your 1992 Geo Prism.
It seems that Campagnolo is now trying to muscle its way in to the high end (or more accurately high priced) clothing market currently dominated by the likes of Assos and Ralpha. I do not question Campy's place in the component market, some will argue that they make the best components available to the general populous. Personally, I wouldn't know as I've never had the luxury of riding a bike so equipped. I've always been a Shimano man myself, not necessarily because I'm a fan, more so because that's what the bike came with and I've never been able to afford replacing an entire groupo at the same time. Shimano's compatibility between different component levels was a big help in building a better group piece by piece. I will admit, 10 speed Dura-ace deraileurs with 9 speed Tiagra shifters were my running gear for a few months. But I digress, I was talking about high end cycling attire and more specifically, Campy's entrance into the market.
It seems that Campy has decided that if you are going to make an impact on the high fashion world of road cycling, you should start big. They now offer a cycling jacket that retails for the modest sum of $600. In addition they have also put out two jerseys and matching bibs for $400 and $380 respectively. At over $1300 for all three, this puts Campy easily on par with most offerings from Assos, and only a few steps below Ralpha on the "my kit costs more than your bike" scale.
While I can be as smug as the next guy when it comes to bike "culture" snobbery, I honestly can't see where a price like this comes from. High tech fabrics and R&D is expensive, but paying $1300 for a cycling kit, even a cold weather one is like putting 18" rims on your 1992 Geo Prism.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The IcyHot Incident
Today I made an interesting discovery on my way to the train stop. The menthol in IcyHot patches seems to be moisture activated. When you have one on and you start to sweat, they really start to go to work. A 10 lb messenger bag on top only intensifies the feeling.
By the time I arrived at my train stop I had to whip my bag around front to relieve the pressure and the feeling that I was receiving a mild chemical burn. Upon doing this I made another fascinating discovery. Some of the menthol seems to have seeped out from under the patch, I'm assuming due to the above mentioned sweating, and feels to have seeped into every wet square inch of clothing on my back. The IcyHot patch that was originally covering the small of my back now extends to my shoulders.
While the feeling of being lathered in a cold numbing gel from the bottom of my shoulders to the top of my crack is not all together unpleasant, I can't say that I want to go around with this feeling all day. In addition to the IcyHot seeping into my clothing and up my back, it has left me surrounded in the faint smell of Vics Vapor-Rub which I am assuming is also menthol and is doing wonders for my congestion.
This could be a new marketing tactic for IcyHot. Not only does it takes care of your muscle aches and pains, but if you get really sweaty it relieves your sinuses and leaves you smelling fresh and minty.
By the time I arrived at my train stop I had to whip my bag around front to relieve the pressure and the feeling that I was receiving a mild chemical burn. Upon doing this I made another fascinating discovery. Some of the menthol seems to have seeped out from under the patch, I'm assuming due to the above mentioned sweating, and feels to have seeped into every wet square inch of clothing on my back. The IcyHot patch that was originally covering the small of my back now extends to my shoulders.
While the feeling of being lathered in a cold numbing gel from the bottom of my shoulders to the top of my crack is not all together unpleasant, I can't say that I want to go around with this feeling all day. In addition to the IcyHot seeping into my clothing and up my back, it has left me surrounded in the faint smell of Vics Vapor-Rub which I am assuming is also menthol and is doing wonders for my congestion.
This could be a new marketing tactic for IcyHot. Not only does it takes care of your muscle aches and pains, but if you get really sweaty it relieves your sinuses and leaves you smelling fresh and minty.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Annoyances of Mixed-Mode Commuting
There are days when I enjoy the fact that I commute via multiple modes of transportation. And then there are days where I am indifferent. This day is neither of the two. This is one of those days where circumstances, whether within my control or beyond it, have left me feeling annoyed, nonplussed or otherwise dismayed.
First on the hit list today is the weather. While 58 degrees is by no means cold, it's not exactly warm. It's hovering in that range where you're not quite sure what to wear. As sunrise will be after I get to work there is no relying on the sun to add a bit of warmth. 5 degrees warmer and shorts and a wind breaker are I need, 5 degrees colder, and the arm and knee warmers come out as well. On this day, I opted for the wind breaker with knee warmers which would have been fine had I not missed my train.
This presents the second issue I have with mixed modes of travel. When you miss a connection, in my case a train, it occasionally leaves you standing around doing little more than thinking about what annoys you most about commuting. During the summer I don't much mind this. Usually its warm, but not hot, so I'll just ride around and explore the parking lot or cruise up and down the road a bit to waste some time. Other times I'll pull out my camera and see if I can find a good view of the sunrise or the city off in the distance. Today, it was sit and shiver or ride around to try to stay warm.
This I will admit was due to some bad decisions on my part. First, choice of attire. As mentioned above, just a wind breaker up top with a T shirt under. The issue with this is that cycling apparel tends to be designed to wick moisture away from you in an attempt to keep you cool and/or dry. In the case of top layers, usually the latter, and it works fairly well when moving. Once you get that buffer layer of warmth between you and the fabric there's usually no issue, that is until you stop. At that point, the moisture wicking properties of the fabric come into play and about 3 minutes later, 58 feels like 48. Normally, this would not have been a real issue as I generally try to take it easy on my 4 1/2 mile ride to the train station, but on this day, I got running late.
Enter bad decision number 2. When you see that you only have 15 minutes to make what, when in commuter mode, at your best is a 15 minute ride, either A. pocket the bagel and book it to the train station, or B. plan on catching the next train and eat the bagel on the road. What did I choose... eat the bagel and try to catch the train. This lead to a cascade of events that ultimately left me cold and sweaty, standing on a train platform.
The cascade goes like this: I chose to eat on the road. I'm pretty sure that over the mile and 1/2 of concentrating on chew, swallow, breathe, I probably lost 30 seconds versus what I probably could have done had I not been so encumbered. Upon realizing my error, I then went into time-trial commuter mode, as opposed to time-trial while eating 1/2 a bagel commuter mode that I had been in previously. Both of which contributed highly to the reason I was rather damp when I arrived at the platform. Now, I'm fairly confident that had I not lost that 30 seconds, I probably could have made the light that turned red about 200 meters in front of me 1/2 a mile from the train platform. Especially since the road was a false flat downhill, and I had a slight tailwind. In turn, had I made that light, I wouldn't have lost the 2 minutes I spent sitting waiting for it to turn green (or a unlikely sizable gap in traffic). When the light turned green, I went into commuter sprint mode, again contributing to the level of sogginess. And when all was said and done, I roll up to the platform to see the train I was trying to catch had left about 30 seconds prior to my arrival.
And thus, the cold, damp wait.
First on the hit list today is the weather. While 58 degrees is by no means cold, it's not exactly warm. It's hovering in that range where you're not quite sure what to wear. As sunrise will be after I get to work there is no relying on the sun to add a bit of warmth. 5 degrees warmer and shorts and a wind breaker are I need, 5 degrees colder, and the arm and knee warmers come out as well. On this day, I opted for the wind breaker with knee warmers which would have been fine had I not missed my train.
This presents the second issue I have with mixed modes of travel. When you miss a connection, in my case a train, it occasionally leaves you standing around doing little more than thinking about what annoys you most about commuting. During the summer I don't much mind this. Usually its warm, but not hot, so I'll just ride around and explore the parking lot or cruise up and down the road a bit to waste some time. Other times I'll pull out my camera and see if I can find a good view of the sunrise or the city off in the distance. Today, it was sit and shiver or ride around to try to stay warm.
This I will admit was due to some bad decisions on my part. First, choice of attire. As mentioned above, just a wind breaker up top with a T shirt under. The issue with this is that cycling apparel tends to be designed to wick moisture away from you in an attempt to keep you cool and/or dry. In the case of top layers, usually the latter, and it works fairly well when moving. Once you get that buffer layer of warmth between you and the fabric there's usually no issue, that is until you stop. At that point, the moisture wicking properties of the fabric come into play and about 3 minutes later, 58 feels like 48. Normally, this would not have been a real issue as I generally try to take it easy on my 4 1/2 mile ride to the train station, but on this day, I got running late.
Enter bad decision number 2. When you see that you only have 15 minutes to make what, when in commuter mode, at your best is a 15 minute ride, either A. pocket the bagel and book it to the train station, or B. plan on catching the next train and eat the bagel on the road. What did I choose... eat the bagel and try to catch the train. This lead to a cascade of events that ultimately left me cold and sweaty, standing on a train platform.
The cascade goes like this: I chose to eat on the road. I'm pretty sure that over the mile and 1/2 of concentrating on chew, swallow, breathe, I probably lost 30 seconds versus what I probably could have done had I not been so encumbered. Upon realizing my error, I then went into time-trial commuter mode, as opposed to time-trial while eating 1/2 a bagel commuter mode that I had been in previously. Both of which contributed highly to the reason I was rather damp when I arrived at the platform. Now, I'm fairly confident that had I not lost that 30 seconds, I probably could have made the light that turned red about 200 meters in front of me 1/2 a mile from the train platform. Especially since the road was a false flat downhill, and I had a slight tailwind. In turn, had I made that light, I wouldn't have lost the 2 minutes I spent sitting waiting for it to turn green (or a unlikely sizable gap in traffic). When the light turned green, I went into commuter sprint mode, again contributing to the level of sogginess. And when all was said and done, I roll up to the platform to see the train I was trying to catch had left about 30 seconds prior to my arrival.
And thus, the cold, damp wait.
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