Bike to Work day!

Today is bike to work day. After years of just being a participant, Eric decided to help out at the breakfast station his work has, so I was riding solo. I was ready to go by about 0605, but nothing really starts until 0630, so I had some time to kill. What to do? Hit the foam roller for ~20 min., of course! Much needed, but very painful also.

Once out the door, my first stop was near home at a house painting business/chocolate shop/commercial bakery. This was the best stop of the morning, food wise...yum! Then on to Celestial Seasonings and Joe's Espresso. While at Joe's, the volunteer there mentioned that I should swing down to Community Cycles' station on the nearby bike path, so I did. They are a very interesting not-for-profit that we may have to get involved with. They accept used bikes and parts, teach bike maintenance skills to kids, adults, low income folks, and anyone else wanting to help out. You can buy refurbished bikes from them at reasonable prices or you can earn a free bike by working 15 or more hours at their "shop."

All in all, my normal 17 min commute was lengthened to ~40 min as I grazed on the breakfast buffet around town. It is kind of like a progressive dinner, actually, where various families host different "courses" (e.g., appetizer, salad, entree, dessert). I tried to be better than last year when I hit over 9 stops, but somehow my scheduled 3 stops grew to 5. Each was very different, and though I think I missed some of the "better" stops in terms of food quality, quantity, and options, I was far from starving, that's for sure! It was a fun morning, and I was still working by ~ 8am, and it was great so see so many people out biking to work. Too bad they don't have free breakfast every time you bike to work!

On a side note, yesterdays TT up to Jamestown went pretty well. I am having a hard time sorting through past workouts, but I think I was ~ 1 min faster than the last time we did this 8 mile, 1400 ft. hill climb (last July). I guess I expected more improvement since we were on the new bikes and have been getting lots of good training in for this type of thing, but I think I may also be a bit fatigued and a tad flat. The legs sure were burning! Either way, it is another benchmark to try and shatter next time.

Today, like Monday, is another reboot day where we have some easy running and riding on the schedule to help flush out the legs in preparation for tomorrow's track workout. I am looking forward to tommorow since the main set is 1200s, rather than the endless 200 we have been doing, and should be good pacing practice for the Loveland Lake to Lake Tri coming up on Saturday. This is our only non-IM tri currently scheduled for 2008, though we will probably race HalfMax if I don't get a Kona slot at Canada. Loveland L2L is always a well-run race with a GREAT lunch, and I am EXCITED to go fast (if the legs are willing)!

Happy Wed.!

-Amber