Yesterday's ride was "educational," as Marty McFly would say. I decided to use my D.C. bike map and for once, actually ride in the city that I claim to live in. (Which, in reality, is Arlington, but "DC" sounds so much cooler.)

The only problem I could foresee was how to get downtown without getting mauled by an errant MetroBus driver. Unfortunately, this required riding on some sidewalks (after the Rock Creek Park trail ended and required me to cross the RC Pwky), which was NOT fun as the monuments were crawling with tourists. Silly me, I thought it being a holiday would mean people were spending all day in church! Apparently not, and I felt like a complete tool for having to ride on the sidewalk until I hit Jefferson Dr.

Being on the New Bike, I didn't have a bell, and I was a bit worried I'd run down some toddler or old person. (That leash law I talked about earlier would help out a lot here.) For some reason, either no one hears and/or understands me if I say, "On your left" when I'm trying to pass someone. However, I noticed a lot people didn't need a verbal warning. New Bike has Campagnolo components, and true to Campy fashion, the freewheel is super noisy… so whenever I coast, my bike emits this loud zizz-zizz-zizz-zizz sound and people turn around and go, "What the…?" — as if some gigantic bee is about to land on them.

Anyway. My turnaround point was RFK Stadium, and I figured I'd give my friend Bobby a shoutout by taking a photo of me with his old 'home' in the background.

I originally intended to head back through the Mall and past the Washington monument as before, but instead I figured I'd risk the [surprisingly minimal] traffic and go down Independence and then cut across the Tidal Basin. (Yes, my bike rides on water.)

Actually, I just did the sidewalk thing again. Which turned out to be worthwhile, as I spotted a giant, black furry dog wearing sunglasses. (Turns out they're Doggles.) Back across the Arlington Memorial Bridge, then around to the Mt. Vernon trail, where I stopped and took this photo:

One of many large clusters of daffodils planted along the trail (marked on the map below). I passed on taking a photo with the Lincoln Memorial in the background, as the smelly shores of TR Island were in the way.

Cyclometer says 24 miles ridden — the map isn't entirely accurate, as I'm not going to point out where I live, so the start point isn't right. You just, just in case there's actually someone reading this and feels the need to egg my house.

After Thursday's not-so-conducive-to-back-comfort ride, I realized part of my stiff back and tiredness problems lie with my bed. (Or would that be IN my bed?) I mean, not that I'm lonely or anything (Sparkey the stuffed dog takes up the other half very well), but I swear I'm not getting enough quality sleep… and thus need more quantity to make up for it.

Quick hop on over to Consumer Reports reveals no ratings (which makes sense - ratings would depend on personal preference and all), but the "Do you need a new mattress?" section reaffirmed my decision that my existing slab of IKEA foam was not working out:

• You wake up tired or achy. - check.
• You tend to sleep better at hotels than at home. - to think about it, yes! I do sleep way better in hotels, and it's not just the mints on the pillows at night, either.
• Your mattress looks saggy or lumpy. - No, but I did buy it used off Craigslist. I know, I'm cheap.

New mattress it is, then!

Any excuse to go to IKEA (a.k.a. the holy land) is a good one, so I drove up to College Park this morning and steeled myself for the weekend crowds. In reality, it wasn't too bad, but I swear, they need to have leash laws for kids. Despite my research and testing of mattresses, none really stood out. Maybe it's me, but they all seemed rock hard and not comfortable at all. Plus, their rating system for firmness seemed really weird - the softest one, to me, was rated as "firm." However, it was $800, and if I'm going to spend that much on a bed, it better make itself and change its own sheets. (Kidding.)

So, no luck at IKEA. The trip wasn't a huge bust, though - I picked up some "food savers" (e.g., Rubbermaid containers), and of course, a bar of the best chocolate in the WORLD!

Delicious.

Not the gastrointestinal type. Gross.

Yesterday I decided to stop wussing out and actually ride after work. The plan was to start in Vienna, take the W&OD up to Herndon, do a quick exploratory loop, then come back.

I knew it was a windy day, but I didn't realize quite how windy it was until I stopped at a light and nearly fell over when a gust hit me.

Wind is my least-favorite weather condition when it comes to biking. I hate it. I would almost rather ride in the rain than in a headwind. Having ridden on the plains of Montana with a consistent headwind for almost two weeks, I know how brutal it is - both physically AND mentally. You pedal, but the amount of effort going into it is quickly dissipated. It takes forever to go even 20 miles. The only way to survive this is riding in a paceline. I remember the worst day involving wind was on the way to Browning. The crosswinds were so bad it literally blew one of the riders off the road into the gravel.

Yesterday, I was reminded of lovely Montana, and how much I hate wind. Then I remembered that back then, I didn't have the luxury of turning around and going home… because obviously, when you go the opposite direction, that headwind is now a tailwind.

So - as sucky as the first half of my ride was (nothing like coasting downhill and watching your speed remain nearly constant), the second half made up for it. Either way, I'm very sore from hunching over (bad!) and trying to fight the wind (also bad!). Knees are not happy today.

Not much to report here. Training for the MS ride is going slowly, more due to lack of motivation stemming from a weather-related funk. The fact that I actually have to drive to ride my own bike feels backwards and kind of takes the fun out of it. Growing up, I could just roll out of my driveway and let the road take me anywhere, not having to worry how to get home. Now I have to go online, map out my route, write up a cue sheet, decide where to park the car, etc. Despite my best efforts in plotting out my ride, I still manage to get lost… which isn't good if you're in an area that you're not familiar with and is also boxed in by busy roads.

This weekend I decided to drive up to Riley's Lock and go from there. On the way, there's a great stretch of River Road that has bike lanes and plenty of "Share the Road" signs. In essence, they weren't bike lanes like the city ones, which are 2 feet wide and wedged between the street and curbside parked cars… they're basically shoulders, which are commonplace in New England but noticeably absent from DC area roads. Since New England usually gets more than 6" of snow a year, it has to actually go somewhere when the roads are plowed… otherwise the buildup would narrow the roads and cause all sorts of problems.

The existence of shoulders is (are?) fabulous for us road cyclists, as gives enough of a buffer to not have to worry about blocking any traffic. Of course, there are the few people (coughcouchDadcough) who forget about staying to the right of the white line and thus pissing drivers off to the point of throwing ice cream out the window on the unfortunate soul who happens to be in front. Ask me how I know.

Anyway, back to River Road. As I was driving down the 6.5 mile bike-friendly stretch toward Riley's Lock, I realized that it'd be lots of fun once my legs get stronger. Here's why:

The ascent doesn't rival that of the famed Hebron Ave. climb back home (ascending 621 feet over 4.3 miles - thanks, mapmyride!) or the "backside" (~300 ft in less than a mile, if my plot points are right).

I never thought I'd take those hometown bike rides for granted, but I really do miss them.

For some reason, I've stumbled across quite a few websites that have reverted to the old habit of using background music. It's quite alarming to click on someone's link, and 3 seconds later get rewarded with an earful of "Beethoven's Fifth" blasting out of your speakers. Better yet, Enya. (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MUTE THE SPEAKERS! MUTE THEM!)

It wasn't like I had found some random sites hosted on Geocities that hadn't been updated since 1999 - these were supposedly legitimate horse farm sites. Not surprisingly, they also came with magenta colored backgrounds and sparkles trailing from my mouse cursor, so I use the term "legitimate" loosely.

Seriously. The practice of having background music was dumb in the 90s, and it's dumb now. Especially when there's no way to turn the damn stream off since it's been embedded so nicely in the code. (Or, if you're like me and browse with multiple tabs open, trying to figure out which site you have open is piping it out.) If that's the case, I won't even look at the site, because dammit, I'd like to be able to listen to my Launchcast player (barking dog music or not) instead of whatever POS mp3 you thought would be cute to add to your site.

At least our internet connections have gotten fast enough to handle mp3s and the use of MIDI files has been pretty much killed off. I hope.