I rode my bicycle in to work today. It was a good ride. Kinda chilly, but once I got going, it felt good. I managed to stay off of Lawndale completely, as I worked through the neighborhood a bit further than I did Sunday and came out on Pisgah Church. Crossing Cone wasn't a big deal -- there were plenty of large gaps in traffic to make it safe to cross. I didn't have any competition on Dellwood, either, so riding on that for the majority of the ride felt safe.

The shower facilities at work leave a bit to be desired, but they're not bad. I wish there were lockers, though, so I could hang my towel up instead of packing it back up in my bag. Still, it's nice to at least have a shower in the building.

The ride was 3.5 miles, took me about 20 minutes.

All the running I've been doing lately is really starting to pay off.

I didn't take my bike out of my truck when I got home last night. When I went to do that today, I decided to go on another ride. I ended up doing 13 miles!

I headed down the greenway near our house to the hospital on Friendly. On my way back toward the house, I realized that I took the couple of hills on the greenway without really thinking about it. I couldn't do that a couple of months ago.

When I got back home, I didn't really want to quit, so I decided to try to bike to my office without getting on any big roads for very long. Thank goodness for my GPSr! It kept trying to take me to some major roads (even though I told it to pick the best route for a bicycle), but every time I ignored it, it kept recalculating. Eventually, we came to a compromise. It ran out of nearby big roads to steer me towards, and let me take smaller roads until I got real close to the office. I think I'll try using that route for a bit and see how it works during the week. My biggest concern is crossing Cone. We'll see.

I got home and sprayed my bike down pretty good, knocking yesterday's mud off of it. I should really clean the chain and see about making some minor adjustments to the brakes and derailleur to make it a bit more efficient. I'm almost sure I need to get a new inner tube for the rear wheel. I seem to have a slow leak that I can't find. I'd like to avoid taking it to the shop for a "tune-up" -- I attended a free "basic bike maintenance" class at REI a few weeks ago, so I think I can do most of what needs to be done. The only thing I don't think I can do is true the wheels. And I think they might need truing, 'cause they both rub against the brake at a certain point of their rotation. I'll work on the rest of the stuff and see about getting my wheels trued (if they need it) later.

If I can get up early enough, I think I might try riding my bike to work tomorrow. Eh, no, I'll probably wait 'till Tuesday -- I'm not sure I want to throw in a bike ride to work after my training run just yet. After yesterday's activities, I'm sure I can take it, but I'd rather just start up with one thing at a time. Plus, that will give me a chance to get an inner tube tomorrow afternoon.

Allright, I guess I'll get the rest of the stuff out of the truck, take a shower, do my laundry, and work on cleaning up the clutter I've allowed to accumulate around the house over the past few weeks.

Yesterday was a busy day, as you might have gathered from the voice posts. All told, it was a very successful busy day.

I got up as early as I could manage and finished getting my stuff ready for the day. I had big plans: a long run, a bit of biking, and lots of geocaching. I was running later than I hoped, but it was OK. I finished setting my bike up, which involved going to the hardware store to pick up some screws to attach my luggage rack to the back. I threw the bike on the back of the truck, along with a cooler full of water. I loaded the cab up with a few changes of clothes, and I headed out to Salem Lake to start my day. I chose to go there because next week, I'll be running in the Salem Lake 10K and I wanted to get a good idea of what the course would look like. My original plan was to run around the entire perimeter of the lake, but I got off to a late enough start that I decided to modify my plan. So, instead, I just ran out along the trail for a half hour, then turned around and ran back to the truck. It got me a 4.5 mile run, and a good idea of what the course looked like. I think my run this Saturday will be a good one, and I should be able to finish before they close the course (I need to finish in an hour and a half). I'm guessing around an hour and twenty minutes for my time.

Once back at the truck, I changed out of my running clothes into biking clothes (plus shorts more than the spandex). After just a little bit, drjekyll arrived, and we got set to bike around the lake, looking for the handful of geocaches that we hadn't found when we were last in the park in December. It was a good ride, although the first hill was a killer. By riding all along the lake, I also learned that the first hill is really the only hill of significance I'll have to contend with on my run Saturday. That's good to know. We found the caches that were findable (several of them are currently disabled). One of them, St. Pat's Cache, gave us particular trouble, but we finally found it. Another good one was Birds of a Feather -- it had that kind of logic problem I enjoy doing. I didn't get it solved, though. But drjekyll had solved it, so we were in good shape.

The biking was really cool. For the most part, the trail was easy to navigate -- wide, hard-packed dirt. But we took a couple of side trails that was real mountain biking. We even discovered a hidden skate park in the middle of the woods. It was pretty freaky.

By the time we finished all that, we were hot, sweaty, and hungry. So we headed over to a Mexican restaurant for supper, where we were joined by beefhyde. It was really yummy.

After supper, we headed over to Walkertown for the Flash Mob Event. We got there early, so we looked for (and found) a couple of other caches. The event was a blast. Afterwards, I hung around a bit, catching up with friends. Lots of fun. It kinda defeats the purpose of a flash mob, but I wish there was more time for hanging out.

Finally, I headed back home. Hot and tired. I slept well.

After spending some time at the office this afternoon, I hit the trails on my bike to do some cache maintenance and cross-training. The cache maintenance went great. I even found a deer antler.

My bike riding, on the other hand, left a bit to be desired. I'm definitely glad I went out on the bike -- I put in about 4.5 miles, a little more than half on a trail, with the rest being on a paved greenway. It was good cross-training after yesterday's run. While my running seems to concentrate on my calves, my bike riding worked my thighs more. I don't think today's bike ride will have an impact on my post-run recovery -- I should be in great shape to go on tomorrow's run. On the way back, I came within four feet of hitting a deer. I didn't see her until I was practically right on top of her. Fortunately, she stayed off the trail, so it wasn't a problem. It was pretty cool. This is the first time I've taken my bike (a hybrid, not a true mountain bike) on a real trail. I really liked it, but I can see how having a bike with suspension would be very helpful. Still, I'm happy with my bike, 'cause I hope to start riding it to work again, and doing that a lot on a true mountain bike wouldn't be a great idea.

The down side of today's ride were the two falls that I took. Being the first time I was on a trail, I really didn't know how to handle all the obstacles that a trail throws at you. This is a great trail for bikes -- well maintained, and where there are obstructions on the trail (downed trees, e.g.), they are appropriately notched down and reinforced with other sticks, creating a sort of ramp on each side of the log. So, really, the obstacles are supposed to be challenging, but not impossible. Well, I saw that first little log coming up and I was really excited to do my first "mountain bike trick" so I headed right for it....

...going too fast.

I think I would have gone over the handlebars had I not had my clipless pedals on the bike. Instead, I just kinda fell off to the left and forward. I'm OK, just got a scratch on my leg. But the fall broke the lanyard I use for my GPSr, broke the stiff part of my fork bag, and knocked my handlebars out of alignment. The lanyard's no big deal. Neither is the bag. And neither were the handlebars -- I was able to twist them back in line. I spent a few minutes checking the bike out and reassembling everything, and then hit the trail again.

A little farther down the trail, I ran into my next obstacle. This time, I at least got the front wheel over the log before falling down. Again, no real big deal. My seat was twisted a bit, but it was easy to twist back. After that, I decided that I would definitely make sure that my shoes weren't clipped in when I came across other obstacles. In the future, I might put my regular pedals on the bike instead of using the clipless pedals. I'll probably try the clipless again, though, and just be more careful.

On the way back, I was able to mount the obstacles without a problem. I'm learning.

Really, it was a lot of fun to be on the trails with this bike. I don't know how it happened, but it seems like it was downhill both ways! I guess I was just having so much fun that the uphills didn't bother me.

My leg muscles feel great. I can't wait to take them on tomorrow's run. I'm a little worried about my knees. I think one (or both?) of my falls included hitting my knees. They're a little sore. I think I'm just looking at a few bruises, though, nothing that will interfere with the mechanics of how my knees work. I hope so, anyway. I guess I'll find out tomorrow after a couple of miles of running....

On the way home, I stopped by another quick geocache.