Running Errands

So my car broke down on the move down to Bloomington and has been in the shop since Saturday. So today I had to run some errands and decided to just do that while I did a training ride.

I started off going to the post office and bank, which put me in downtown Bloomington near campus. So I decided to check out campus on the bike. It was all beautiful of course and on the south side there are the brick paths through a pretty densely wooded area. It was cool, but it seems like at night it would look like the setting of a horror movie.

I finished by stopping for some groceries and then ran into the bus that goes by my apartment. I'm happy to say I kept up with the bus about the last 3/4 of a mile back to my apartment (the traffic lights helped).

Tomorrow I'm going to visit my sister Emily in Boston. Kozak will arrive on Thursday and we're going to go for a ride one or two days there. I arranged to borrow my sister's friend's road bike, Kozak's ride might have a milk crate on the back. We'll play it by ear.

First ride in Bloomington

I moved from Michigan down to Bloomington, Indiana on Friday. Given all the work required for the move I got my first ride in about a week today.

My apartment is on the south side of town and I rode down to Monroe Reservoir, which is a lake about 10 miles from town. The roads are okay, once you get into the park at the lake it isn't real smooth, but traffic isn't bad. Also there are a bunch of hills, including two big hills as you descend down to a bridge over the lake and then come back up.

It was a nice hilly ride, which is good preparation.

Flickr Photostream and Yesterday's Ride

First and foremost, check out my Flickr photostream I just created. So far it just has a couple photos of my bike, but I'll continue to update it this summer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamsouthard

Yesterday it was very windy so we scrapped the Kensington to Fenton ride because it's pretty open and decided to ride from Walled Lake to Milford and back. However when we met in Walled Lake, Bill was nowhere to be seen. So Jeff and I lapped the lake and to see if Bill would show. However he wasn't there when we got back about 15 minutes later, so we just took off on our normal Walled Lake ride. But Jeff we did add a big hill down to Proud Lake and back, which was fun to sail down and then climb back up.

Rides this week are looking spotty due to the move to Bloomington on Friday, but I'm certainly going to work a couple in and am looking forward to riding down in Bloomington this weekend and next week.

Oh and I was all excited that I hit 31 mph at Cranbrook on Saturday, but I read in the International Herald Tribune this morning that one of the riders in the Giro d'Italia was clocked on one of the descents at 73 mph!! But then again there was another rider who went over a guardrail and fell 250 feet into a ravine. He's conscious now, but suffered a broken femur, broken ribs, broken vertebrae, and a collapsed lung. The other riders protested by riding at half-speed during the next stage saying the course was too dangerous.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/sports/cycling/18cycling.html?_r=1&hpw

Cranbrook and Bloomfield Hills

Today Jeff and I met at the Bloomfield Hills public library and then rode down to the Cranbrook campus. I suggested we ride through Cranbrook because I had never been there before. However almost immediately after we rode through the gates we found ourselves at a dead-end by the tennis courts. So we decided to ride up a little trail off-road, which our bikes definitely were not designed for. Nevertheless we managed to do okay, including a seriously steep climb on soft dirt, until we ran into wooden stairs and had to carry the bikes. But we managed to find our way back into the heart of campus, which is beautiful- the buildings are a combination of arts & crafts and international style- very cool. Plus there's a good size hill just after the Woodward entrance and I was able to hit a little over 31 mph heading down.

Afterwards we just sort of tooled around Bloomfield Hills. I was struck by two phenomenons: first the number of houses for sale (not a surprise) and two, the number of houses under construction including some massive houses (which was a little surprising). I guess some people really aren't affected at all by the recession.

Anyway it was a nice casual ~75 minute ride in the wind and a good prep for tomorrow's long ride.

Catch-up and last week at TCF

So I've been slow updating my posts recently so here's a quick recap of the past week:

- last Friday (one week ago today), I played a great match of racquetball against Matt. If memory serves correct, I won the first about 15-10, he won the second 15-12, and I won the third 15-13. The numbers are probably a little off, but it was a great match and a great workout nonetheless.
- Saturday I went to GP, rode about 32 miles and then helped my mom make dinner to celebrate Mother's Day a day early. Ran into Mike Olson at his parents' house, which was a pleasant surprise.
- Sunday I met Jeff and Bill in Walled Lake, we then rode to Milford. It was my first time in Milford and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice their downtown is. We stopped and had a coffee then rode home. The ride was only 25 miles, but it was pretty windy and there were a couple hills that kept it interesting.
- Monday ran three miles around Royal Oak.
- Tuesday didn't get out because I met some people at the bar after work since it was my last week at TCF.
- Wednesday I played in our volleyball league and we (finally) swept an inferior team that we should have beaten every time we've played them.
- Thursday I ran my normal route for another three miles here in Royal Oak.
- Friday (today) was my last day at TCF Bank where I've worked for six years, including the whole time since I graduated from UofM. I was actually reasonably busy. I had planned to go for a ride after work, but it was pouring down rain when I left the office at six, so I detoured to the bar with a couple people from the office, then met Matt and Sherri for dinner and just got home not long ago.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Jeff to go for a ride in Bloomfield Hills, then Sunday we're meeting at Kensington Metro Park and riding out to Fenton and back, which should be a good 3-4 hours.

Cruising in Grosse Pointe

Tonight after work I went to my mom's house in Grosse Pointe and rode a great 20 miles there. She lives in the Woods and I took a meandering route down to Windmill Pointe and back. I felt a little like Danny Noonan in the first scene of Caddyshack.

It was a great ride because the weather was perfect, the scenery is nice, roads are pretty smooth, and traffic is light. Plus given the vigilence of the local police force and the elevated median age of the population, no one drives real fast. As a matter of fact I was averaging 18-20 mph and a handful of cars just fell in behind me rather than passing me even though there was ample time and space to do so safely. Also I saw a cool old Rolls-Royce in the City.

So it's definitely a ride I'll do again before I hit the road.

Speaking of hitting the road, I purchased my one-way tickets to San Francisco and home from DC, which is exciting.

Metro Grand Spring Tour

Yesterday I met with Jeff and Bill my earlier riding partners to ride through Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham. Basically bounded by Lone Pine, Maple, Telegraph, and Old Woodward. There were some smaller hills, but it was a pretty relaxed ride.

This morning I did the Metro Grand Spring Tour with those guys and a few others. We started at Willow Metropark in Belleville and it was still pretty cool when we began. But once we put on the road it was great. They had pancakes at mile 12, which was awesome. And it continued to warm up as we rode. After the second stop at mile 25 we picked up the pace and skipped the third at last stop.

All told it was 47 miles through some beautiful parks and sparsely traveled roads. I feel good and it was a great first long ride as I prepare for Journey of Hope.