Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1672:
72° this morning, but very humid. The wind was blowing about 15 mph from my least favorite direction, which is southeast. That meant I got a slight push (more crosswind than push) on the way to work, I'll get a crosswind/slight headwind at lunch on the way to a client location and I'll have to fight it head-on during the ride home. I much prefer fighting the wind on the way to work and getting the push later in the day when I'm tired. God doesn't consult me when choosing the wind directions.
Doing a 24 mile loop today. Slept OK last night once I fell asleep, but didn't get the total amount of sleep I should have. Not getting enough sleep has been a pretty common theme for me for quite a while now. I should go to bed earlier, but it seems there's always some life event keeping me up. Five minutes before I was supposed to leave the house this morning I drifted off as I was sitting in a chair preparing for the day. Thankfully I woke up and was able to force myself to stand up and get out the door on time.
I was on my road bike. As I was riding along I came to the backside of a fork in the MUP. As I merged into the main path, there was a group of three guys on road bikes on the other branch about 100 yards behind me. They were keeping a good group pace and within 1/4 mile they caught me.
The first guy passed me with no problem. The 2nd guy made an unsafe pass, squeezing between me and some oncoming pedestrians. As the 3rd guy came around, he slowed down and struck up a conversation. He was fascinated that I was riding my bicycle to work. We started talking about our various occupations, and discovered that we have a a handful of mutual friends. Nice guy.
After about two miles of chatting, his friends were well ahead of us so he wished me well and took off to catch them. As we came to Yankton Trail park, he and his friends stayed on the MUP, while I got off and took the main road through the park. I generally take this route on the way in to work just to vary my routes a little, as I'll ride the MUP the whole way through this park on the way home. The main road is ever so slightly longer than the MUP route. However, in the early mornings there's not a lot going on in the park (it's mostly soccer fields) so I often have the road completely to myself.
I'm not sure what got into me, but as long as I was out on the road and didn't have to worry as much about speed limits and pedestrians, I decided to see if I could beat that group of riders to the place where I rejoin the MUP about a mile down the road. I cranked for all I was worth, maintaining 20+ mph for the whole stretch. I managed to beat them to the intersection by about 5 feet. My new friend was surprised to see me in front of him again, and stated that he was impressed with how fast I made it through the park.
When I arrived at work, I was sweatier than I've been in a long, long time.