Bikes!
I've been biking back and forth to work for the last week, except for two days when I actually needed the car. Staples mill road at 6:00 am is fantastic. Staples Mill road at 4:00 pm is totally insane. Recently I have been cutting through Lakeside.
My usual route takes me around the I-64 cloverleaf between Dickens and Bethlehem roads adding about a mile of distance to my total route. The easy route is 7.5 miles; the white knuckle rated one a cool 6.4 mi. If I tried to get through the myriad of exit and on ramps, I could make it in about 5.5.
Today I decided to take the best of both worlds. I took a left from the stoplight on Bethlehem and attempted to brave the crazy afternoon traffic. I have two middle fingers, lots of LEDs, a blaze orange jersey and sometimes more gusto than stomach.
The situation is as follows. Once you turn onto Staples Mill, it looses a lane to I-64 East so I'm basically trekking uphill in the middle lane. That's no problem, even in decently bad traffic. The intersection is less than a mile from work, so I'm usually running on full tanks. Then the road takes a nice downhill slope to a stoplight and a lane comes in from I-64 Westbound. Thankfully that light is a short one and I caught it on red. I negotiated into the right lane with no difficulties.
"Hey you let me the fuck over or I will kick your side panels!"
The problem with this light is that: 1. I need to make a right turn. and 2. It's a steep upward climb, with a full stand still stop at the bottom. With enough room between my bike and the car in front of me I get what momentum I can to go up the hill at a decent pace. I'm most of the way up the hill, get into the right turn lane with little drama, when my foot slips off of the pedal and grinds right into my leg.
Without missing another beat I keep climbing up that hill and onto the next grueling hill over I-64 on Dumbarton. At the next stop light I pull into a bank parking lot and inspect the damage. There is a 2 inch gash in my shin, crazy swelling and blood all the way to my sock line. My blood sugar at this point has also tanked and I have the crazy shakes.
All I can think about is the white socks that I'm wearing. Not another pair ruined due to some leg injury. The next though was about this injuring showing up in those family wedding photos in two weeks. So much for wearing a knee length dress. I throw some bleed stop on my newest adventure wound let it stop burning and make it home in record time.
Now I have a dilemma. I can upgrade my pedals to the cleat type which require special shoes. I have a pair of old cleats, but unfortunately they are too large. Or I can choose one of the following strap in type foot stabilizers, toe clips and foot straps. They don't require special shoes or cost more than $75, but I find them quite annoying. The bad thing about toe clips and foot straps is they don't generally keep my feet from slipping backwards, which is usually my biggest problem.
Decisions...
My usual route takes me around the I-64 cloverleaf between Dickens and Bethlehem roads adding about a mile of distance to my total route. The easy route is 7.5 miles; the white knuckle rated one a cool 6.4 mi. If I tried to get through the myriad of exit and on ramps, I could make it in about 5.5.
Today I decided to take the best of both worlds. I took a left from the stoplight on Bethlehem and attempted to brave the crazy afternoon traffic. I have two middle fingers, lots of LEDs, a blaze orange jersey and sometimes more gusto than stomach.
The situation is as follows. Once you turn onto Staples Mill, it looses a lane to I-64 East so I'm basically trekking uphill in the middle lane. That's no problem, even in decently bad traffic. The intersection is less than a mile from work, so I'm usually running on full tanks. Then the road takes a nice downhill slope to a stoplight and a lane comes in from I-64 Westbound. Thankfully that light is a short one and I caught it on red. I negotiated into the right lane with no difficulties.
"Hey you let me the fuck over or I will kick your side panels!"
The problem with this light is that: 1. I need to make a right turn. and 2. It's a steep upward climb, with a full stand still stop at the bottom. With enough room between my bike and the car in front of me I get what momentum I can to go up the hill at a decent pace. I'm most of the way up the hill, get into the right turn lane with little drama, when my foot slips off of the pedal and grinds right into my leg.
Without missing another beat I keep climbing up that hill and onto the next grueling hill over I-64 on Dumbarton. At the next stop light I pull into a bank parking lot and inspect the damage. There is a 2 inch gash in my shin, crazy swelling and blood all the way to my sock line. My blood sugar at this point has also tanked and I have the crazy shakes.
All I can think about is the white socks that I'm wearing. Not another pair ruined due to some leg injury. The next though was about this injuring showing up in those family wedding photos in two weeks. So much for wearing a knee length dress. I throw some bleed stop on my newest adventure wound let it stop burning and make it home in record time.
Now I have a dilemma. I can upgrade my pedals to the cleat type which require special shoes. I have a pair of old cleats, but unfortunately they are too large. Or I can choose one of the following strap in type foot stabilizers, toe clips and foot straps. They don't require special shoes or cost more than $75, but I find them quite annoying. The bad thing about toe clips and foot straps is they don't generally keep my feet from slipping backwards, which is usually my biggest problem.
Decisions...