I had intended to spend Friday evening setting a personal distance-covered record.
So far, two of my many bosses over the years have been triathletes. And my current boss always tosses out tidbits like what a “good” time for something would be.
Apparently the record is doing around 25 miles in under an hour.
Now, it turns out that I can do about 25mph in a sprint on my not-designed-for-racing bike, albeit at a fairly high cadence and not for very long on level ground.
It also turns out that I can bike 25 miles before I start to get really tired. But it takes me a lot longer than an hour.
I was proud of myself, however. I did get going awfully fast for most of the ride — I had told myself I would see how far I could go at 12mph, but for a lot of the ride, I was going more like 15-18mph on the gravel.
Ah, but the stupid part. See, we’re moving to a place where I won’t feel scared about my stuff being stolen. We haven’t decided where. And so I biked to one prospective location because it just so happened to be along the ride I was planning on doing anyway. And so then, along the way, Mrs. Wirehead met up with me and I offloaded my backpack.
I had taken my license and one credit card out of my wallet and put it in my saddle pack. I forgot my badge, with a VTA pass on the back. And, I didn’t realize that unlike most other machines, VTA machines don’t take credit cards.
So I biked to downtown San Jose from Sunnyvale, figuring I’d take the VTA to Mountain View and then go home… which didn’t actually work out and instead had me leaving my bike at work and getting picked up.
Still, the sense of accomplishment is much better on the bike. See, one time we were walking from my Brother’s house to a taco place. As the crow flies, it’s not far, but my brother lives a place where the streets are in a car-centric subdivision layout, so it ends up being much farther. And when we get there, I realize that the equivalent car ride would have been quite a good distance.
But on the bike, especially compared to how gummed up the highways can get, I suddenly feel like I’m GOING somewhere. Sure, it’s slower, but it’s faster than the speed-of-boredom… I’m seeing something new and interesting just as I get bored of the current view. So I went along the bay trail, past the Sunnyvale sports center, past the Lick Mill ritzy condo and apartment developments, past the airport, into the city, and I was going somewhere.
Oh, and the apartment location? Looked just fine from the front. Looked absolutely skeezy and graffiti-covered from the back.