Adventures in Bicycling...

Now that we're Californians and all, we need to do the California thing and ride our bikes everywhere and, for the ladies, be skinny, tan and blonde. Let me tell you right now: I will be neither tan nor blonde. Skinny wouldn't be bad but I don't think that's in the cards. Anyway.

So, this week, I decided that I would ride my bike, along with Michael, to his office and then I would bike home. This is a 10 mile round trip and while it's mostly flat, it involves plenty of pedaling and racing to intersections to make as many lights as possible. And it's been fun so far (and good exercise) but it can be a little scary at times and I'm still working on my bicycle fierceness. One problem is that I don't have a really "good" bike, not that it's a bad bike, but it's not a California bike. It's not a $600 lightweight, no kickstand, cool-looking bike with helpful foot thingies that keep your feet on the pedals. But it'll do. Michael is going to take it to a bike shop this weekend to have the gears adjusted which will help tremendously.

The bigger issue is my lack of fierceness. I need to be more aggressive around cars when I'm riding. This is hard b/c I am convinced that they will run my ass off the street. Most roads around here have designated bike lanes but in CA, there are legal U-turns so this morning I watched a car make a U-turn and nearly mow down the guy in front of me b/c the driver drove right into the bike lane in order to execute his turn. And where there are no bike lanes, I need to be more aggressive about taking up enough space in the road to keep cars from forcing me off the road and into the gutter. And my husband kindly alerted me to the fact that I need to leave plenty of space between me and parked cars in case a driver opens her car door in front of me. I don't fancy myself the star of some video you'd see on those funniest (stupidest) home video shows where some poor guy gets hit in the nuts or, in my case, I go flying off my bike and do a face plant in the street.

This morning's ride was my last for at least 6 days since I'm taking the red eye tonight for Alissa's and Todd's wedding. That'll give me time to work on my fierce (maybe Gwen will help me with my look) so that when I get back I'll be ready.