Will I Stink At School?

Ride Day

am
time- 30:26
distance- 8.66 (+approx. 2mi)
pm
time- 1:45
distance- 20.1mi

Yesterday was an experiment. Super Awesome Wife's car broke down Wednesday, preempting a run workout in favor of being up to my elbows in her engine not fixing anything. So Thursday I decided to ride my bicycle to school. After school there was a vote so I could vote against the horrible contract my union and the state tried to foist upon us, and the vote was on top of a hill I thought would be good to ride. And then I would meet Super Awesome Wife at Starbucks where her knitting group meets (don't judge me), and the Starbucks is at the base of another decent climb. Ride to school. Ride to vote in protest. Ride to knitting. Insert climbs here.

Slingback. Come on, Niners!

Not to jinx it, but it went off without a hitch, or at least a very little hitch. I left my house at first light, figuring it would take me around 40 minutes to get all the way to school (10 miles). First light is right about 7am. School starts at 7:45. Yes, I know I'm cutting it close but that's the best I could do. I'm not riding in the dark. The roads were clear enough, the weather was nice. Cool, but riding with a backpack warmed me up right quick. Never ridden with a backpack before. I love my pack, it's a slingback backpack, and it works great for walking around. But on the bike the cross-chest strap means that when I straighten up it goes from a backpack to a kangaroo pouch, with my clothes as a joey. Not great. And then I spend the next 200 yards trying to swing the damn thing back onto my back, looking like a complete spazz I'm sure, elbows flying and shoulders twisting. Also not good. So if I'm going to do this again I'm going to need a better riding pack. Other than that I got to school fine and with time to spare. Quick paper towel shower in the teacher's restroom, change into teacher clothes, and I'm in the classroom. Didn't even need coffee.
After school I hit the road for Pearl City High School. It's at the top of a hill I've been up on my motorcycle many times. In my head this was going to be a heavy duty climb, good work, high DSQ. In my head this was freaking steepness. In reality, not so much. There were steep parts, but none of them lasted that long and none of them were that bad. Enter a mix between disappointed (awww, I wanted to work more) and proud (yeah, I totally smoked that, booyah). I was going to head to the bottom and do it again after voting no (I wasn't the only one. We voted no 67% to 33%. Suck it, Hawaii. Now come back with a real contract), but on the way to the bottom I realized it's pretty busy down there. Too busy to be comfortable turning around. So instead I changed plans and was off to Starbucks and Kaahumanu street. I lived halfway up Kaahumanu for about three months, until I realized my roommate was a psychoassholedouchenozzle, so I was familiar with the road and was wondering if my memory of this steepness was also skewed. It was, but not as bad as the other. My elevation chart says that it's 600ft of climbing in two miles, which I guess is good stuff. But when I got to the top I wasn't too burnt so I decided to turn around, head to the bottom, and do it again. Took me longer the second time, hurt more, was harder to spin out of the granny gear, but still wasn't really awful. It helped to know that it was only two miles. Part of the Dirtbag Riding Philosophy is- To get stronger, head up, so that's what I try to do.
So it was a good experiment. Next time I want to ride to school I think I'll plan ahead better and leave a change of clothes in my classroom the day before.
Home to school

School to PCHS to Starbucks