Back in the saddle.

It's good to be back in cycling range from my place of work. When I moved up north from Southern California, I went from being 3 minutes by bike from work to being one hour by car from work. But now I'm back to being about 30 minutes by bike. It's a real relief to no longer being slogging through the Portland traffic in a car, and it really didn't make a lot of sense for a student of Renewable Energy Engineering to be commuting two hours a day in a fossil fuel slurping juggernaut. Anyway, yesterday was my first day of commuting to work by bike, and everything went smoothly. my route takes me about two miles out of my way, as the main drag from my house to work is two narrow but heavily traveled lanes with no bikelanes, shoulders or sidewalks whatsoever. Of course this is Oregon so, much like nature and a vacuum, the local sensibilities abhor any bike unfriendly areas; the road is already scheduled for major bike infrastructure upgrades early next year.

Once I got to work and settled into my routine, I got an email from Chris Stapelmann, wondering if I wanted to join him on his lunch ride. I should have known better. Chris is training for a 100 mile ride that's happening in two weeks, so he's been hitting the hills pretty hard, whereas I haven't been in the saddle for a year. But what the hell...I've been known to do alright on some hills in the past, and what better way to welcome my legs back into cycling than to follow Dr. Stapelmann towards the nearest hill?

I can't say that I was entirely prepared. I hadn't brought cycling gear, so I was in my work clothes and flat shoes. I also forgot my water bottle, as I am wont to do, and I didn't bring any food. But how bad could it be? We headed out north of town through the fields and gardens. Very beautiful countryside. Eventually we arrived at the base of the spur of mountains that extends to the north west of Portland, and headed up the hill. In spite of the splendor of the surroundings, the hill was a bit longer and steeper than I really was ready for. It took a lot of mind over matter to make it up to skyline boulevard, but the respite from climbing, as well as the spectacular views made it well worth it. From there, literally, it was all downhill.

It wasn't really that hard of a ride. At twenty five miles and around 1000 feet of climbing, it would have been a trivial jaunt back when I was riding regularly on the hills of Southern California. But a year or so of being sedentary have slightly changed the playing rules a bit. But those days are over. In no time, this route will be just a beautiful though easy local ride.