Evening Tennis

The weather on Tuesday was absolutely gorgeous and perfect for an outdoor evening tennis match.  I met up with tennis friend I from our team.  We both had not played in months but after a few rusty games we started to play better.  It was nice to get out there for a match and enjoy the weather. We were able to catch up, and I got to hear about her adventures in Germany where she taught English for about 7 months this past year. Welcome back I.  It reminds how I would love to work for one of the bicycle tour groups in Paris.  I hope to be able to do that at some point down the road.   - P

Pesto, Peppers, Pasta, Piggies

Aside from the awesome alliteration of the title, I also want to add Basil, Avocado, and Bread.

The other day at work I came back to my desk to an odd shaped interoffice mail envelope.  Inside of it was a wonderful surprise.  Not just some green peppers, but along with them, an instructive post-it note.  I felt obligated to comply.  Below you will see a wonderful pesto, lentil, and green pepper Alfredo sauce over pasta, a side of bread with avocado, and some fresh basil.  Yummy.  And, since I share food with my guinea pigs, they also enjoyed the peppers that arrived via interoffice mail.  -A

Bubble Tea

Earlier this week we thought we would experiment making bubble tea at home. I have family visiting from out of town and they brought all the ingredients with them. It was a lot of fun to see it made in person.  I have to admit I do enjoy the more non-traditional flavors such as peach and mango as opposed to the one we made, which was regular tea and milk.  I also think I would have liked it better if we made it in the morning in place of coffee as opposed to late in the evening.  Aside from that it was an interesting process.  - P

Read A Book(s) About Cycling

As our fifth event in the Let's Go Ride A Bike Summer Games  we decided to read a book or shall I say books.  We each picked up two books and then plan to share them after we finish our sets of two.  I bought  "Joyride" by Mia Birk and "Down the Road in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam" by Tim and Cindie Travis.

I actually read "Down the Road" in just a couple of evenings.  It read much like a blog which is what they started with and was enjoyable to hear of their adventures in Asia by bike.  I myself have only traveled through Asia by plane, train, bus, metro, and cars.  It was interesting to see how they managed to get themselves around and get through some of the obstacles they faced. It was an easy read and they seem like genuinely nice people.

The second book I read (haven't finished yet) is "Joyride".  It's a book that has been on my list for quite a few months.  I am about halfway through and really like it so far.  It is interesting to read about Mia's challenges as she helped shape Portland as a bike friendly city. It is a personal story and very inspirational as well.  On that note I am off to take a bike ride myself.  -P

Well, I decided to pick up the books "Bike Snob" by BikeSnobNYC and "The Cyclist's Manifesto" by Robert Hurst.  I read "Bike Snob" first and haven't even start the other.  It seems my "for fun" reading time in the past few weeks has been in those few minutes before I fall asleep.  Nonetheless, I did finish "Bike Snob"and enjoyed it very much.  There is so much practicality and truth and history I didn't know in it, held together well by humor.  I can't wait to read the other three books!  -A

Perform a Maintenance Task On Your Bike(s)

As the fourth event in the Let's Go Ride a Bike Summer Games I decided to perform some bike maintenance.  It works out perfectly as I am expecting family in from out of town tonight and plan to let my sister ride the hybrid bike.   I haven't been on my road bike at all this year since I have been riding my hybrid.  The tires on my road bike were, of course, flat and the bike was slightly dusty.  I washed both bikes, cleaned and put lube on the chain, put air in the tires, checked the brakes and gears.  I have a bicycle repair manual which I have used for reference in the past.  Aside from what I did today I have been lucky as my husband usually helps me with more difficult repairs.  I do want to learn more so I can do them on my own in the future. - P

Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go!

I have so much to say, I don't know where to start.  Today was my first ever commute to work on my bike!  My workplace is not right around the corner, but it is also not across town.  For my first commute, I decided to take the safest, most predictable route.  I drove my bike about 4 miles from my home to the park and rode from there.  It saved about 30 minutes to an almost 1 hour for the ride each way.  Riding through the park, it felt earlier than it really was.  It was very quiet and the shadows were longer than what I am used to, since I typically get out to ride in the evening.  It was also a cooler day than it has been recently, and that was a blessing.  

I rode about 9.5 miles to work.  I am very thankful that there are showers in the basement of the building I work in.  I tried to remember everything to get ready for work. The only things I forgot were shampoo, earrings, and sunscreen for the ride home (good thing it was a cloudy day).  I thought that was pretty good on my part, for this being my first commute. 

The worst part of the journey was that my bike had to spend all day in the office with me.  Poor bike, both of us would have rather been outside.

The ride home was actually a little quicker since I could go down some of the more intense hills I went up in the morning.  It was decent ride as well, only about half of what I am used to in the evenings so I still have most of the night to relax and do other things.

Overall Stats:

Mileage: 19.1 miles round trip.

Time Out: approx. 50 minutes

Time Back: 45 minutes

I learned quite a bit today.  I am sure that I can find a quicker route if I enter and exit at different parts of the park.  Or maybe not even take that route at all.  And there are other logistical things that would probably make my trip easier, considering my back pack was quite heavy.  Perhaps a rear bike rack is in my near future? I am sure there are other efficiencies I could adopt as well.  Because of my work, after work schedules, and the time and distance between everything, I don't know if bike commuting is something that I could practically do every day, but I will definitely do it again. I want to thanks the LGRAB Summer Games for giving me the little extra motivation to get out there and commute to work! -A

Go On A Group Ride

As the third event of the Let's Go Ride A Bike Summer Games we chose to "go on a group ride".  Since me and A actually happened to ride two days in a row together we thought we would post pictures of both rides.  Sunday, me, A, and my husband M went out for a 6 mile run.  Although the temperature was starting to climb by the end of the run we thought we would also go on a bike ride.  We have some running races scheduled this fall so adding an extra workout sounded like a nice idea. Our bike ride was a little over 7 miles but was relaxing as we stopped for some iced coffees midway through the ride, as well as some pictures to document our adventure.   We also realized that this was the first time my husband and A went on a bike ride together.  As much as all of us like to ride our bikes it was amazing that it was the first time.  

  

Monday we went on our group ride to one of the multipurpose trails that we alternate riding on each week.  Me, A, and our friend M met up after work. Between 2 and 4 of us usually meet up once a week to ride.  The amount of miles varies as well as the location.  We usually ride 12+ miles. We planned to ride 30 miles and then go enjoy a quick dinner afterward. We accidentally rode 38 but fortunately finished early enough to still have dinner junk food. It was a lot of fun and reminiscent of past training rides. We actually documented one of our  other group rides just 2 weeks ago. We rode 14.5 miles that day and were able to spend some time admiring the view of the lake. Enjoying the time spent riding our bikes with family and friends definitely outweighs the location or distance of the ride. - P