(Dis)Incongruity

That preparing to fail thing again...I left five minutes early Friday morning to take some pictures, but after I took two, the camera stopped due to dead batteries. Shucky-darn!



However, I was trying to capture one of those incongruities that cyclists face on a daily basis. One of mine occurs right at the start of my commute as I ride west on Bobier Drive towards the Melrose Sprinter Station. While you may be thinking the incongruity in this first photo is "why is the Mormon Church wasting a precious natural resource by watering the sidewalk?", that was not my intent. Actually, this picture is just to note the bike lane on Bobier in the city of Vista, which is oriented to also allow curbside parking.




However, when one leaves Vista and crosses into Oceanside, the bike lane changes...abruptly. I hate being faced with the existential dilemma so early in the morning of where to change bike lanes. Oceanside is a "Bicycle Friendly Community", which you can tell by the road construction that begins as soon as you enter the city. However, while their bike lanes don't allow parking, it would be nice if they eased a cyclist over rather than absurdly launching him into the auto-type lane.



My camera batteries died after that pic, so I reloaded during the day, and being too lazy to go back across the street on the way home, I took photos on the eastbound side. Here, you see the converse: one enters Vista, and again one must change lanes--abruptly. However, in this direction, rather than being dumped into a lane of moving cars, one is dumped into a lane of parked ones, which I find much easier to avoid. Plus, existential dilemmas are easier to deal with on the way home since the pre-ride brewed beverage is usually relaxing rather than stimulating.



Finally, looking back to the west from Vista to Oceanside, one sees the construction (they're replacing a perfectly good open space with a "sports park" which will better organize "fun") and a wave of eastbound traffic about to approach the discontinuous bike lane. Perhaps they should mention this on the "Welcome to Vista" sign. Fortunately, my bike is legally parked!

Back...in..the...Saddle

I did get back to cycle commuting, but I did so in a way that managed to go against most (if not all) of John Wooden's maxims. As I suggested previously, I started in with the short ride from home to the Sprinter station, and while that was a reasonable start, it was, to me, a tease. Thus, instead of planning my next step, I went with my desire to ride.

Failure to plan is planning to fail.

As one experienced in failure, I am thankful that one can learn from it. I sat watching the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California, and my hand felt good. I felt like I could take a leap and do more than just a baby step to the next level. The next day, a Monday, I put my trusty XO in the truck bed and drove off to Encinitas station. I have done the ride from Encinitas to UCSD so many times that it is a unit of measure to me, so despite not having ridden in months, I felt comfortable in this ride.

And it was great!

From the Coaster train, the coast route looks like this:



Except on the odd Friday, it might look like this:




But that Monday morning, I got to see those sights that I'd been missing. The train rolls on, but one of the beauties of cycling is that if you see something you like, you can stop and take it in. So, at the bottom of the Torrey Pines grade, I stopped to capture the beauty of an early Monday, low tide morning (I didn't capture the summit due to physiological limitations).



However, as a one time thing, I was ready for this, but not as a routine. This was Bike-to-Work week, ending Bike-to-Work Day, and my goal was to ride that celebrated Friday





And I accomplished that goal, but I'd pushed it without a plan. All those routines that go along with regular cycling I hadn't yet established. Soon, I found myself like the cranky child who needs a nap, and one morning, instead of making that day my masterpiece, I was lashing out at a perceived injustice. Though, I did discover that I could once again make obscene gestures with my surgically repaired left hand.

I took a few days off, and reformulated. John Wooden passed away, and while that is a sad loss, the attention that event gave to his life and his teachings was a benefit to me. It reminded me of precepts I'd been taught as a child and how they applied now. So, I'm doing my basic bike-train-train-bike commute, and doing so in a way to be quick to the next step, but not to hurry it. I'll get the camera to capture the details soon.

One of the people who inspires me to ride is Starla, and next week she's going to take off on an adventure over familiar ground to me, but she's going to do it with just one speed. My wish for her is that she'll have the right amount of Pop-Tarts when she needs `em! Follow along on her adventure here.