Racing the Sun

     I have continued to commute to work several times a week. The daylight is getting shorter and the nights are getting colder, so ride time is becoming even more precious. I have found myself racing the sun both in the morning and in the evenings. In the morning, I race to get to work before the sun breaks over the horizon. In the evening, I race to make it home before the sun disappears.

Racing the sunset

Picked up some flowers on one ride home. They're sure to make the house look great in the Spring.

Me and Shannon on an evening ride

     My first patients arrive at 7am, so I have to leave the house early in the morning to arrive at work with time to shower and get dressed in work attire. I love the crisp fall air at 5am, and the quiet country backroads in the dark. The moon was full this week, allowing me to turn off my headlight when no cars were around. The moon was so bright that I cast a shadow across the road. I love how dead the roads are that early in the morning. There is just something about having clicked off 15 miles before you pass by the first house that has a light turned on.

Another bright sunrise by bike

     I've been riding my singlespeed All City cross bike a lot lately. It is so awesome to be pedaling away and look down, only to see a big chain rolling around a single cog. So simple and so nice. The gear on it is perfect to roll down the flats. It makes me really work on the climbs. I took it out to the local group ride last week. That gear tops out at about 24 mph...or so I thought. Twice during the ride I bridged a gap at over 30 mph, just spinning my little legs off. The group rides are funny this time of year. Darkness makes the weenie come out in a lot of people. They see shorter days as an excuse to do a short loop and end the ride early, even when they have lights mounted on their bike. It drives me crazy when they quit 30 minutes before sunset. That's just a waste of perfectly good ride time! I couldn't help but laugh when one guy said he had to go shorter because he was on his old aluminum bike and it had downtube shifters. My 35 lb. singlespeed just makes the ride more fun, not a reason to ride less.

     I am really enjoying the ability to commute and ride every day. I'm so grateful for the bikes that I have and the fitness to be able to ride 21+ miles to work. I'm logging in a lot of miles and saving a lot of money on gas. Life is good.