Bike commuting to/from/across a college campus

I started bike commuting when I started my Master of Science degree out in Corvallis Oregon in Fall 1997.  Since then, with the exception of 6 months living in Delemont Switzerland, all my jobs have been on University Campuses. Thus the majority of my bike-as-transportation riding has been to and from a campus, and much of my race training riding has involved crossing campuses.  There are a few lessons to be learned.

First and foremost... know what times class changes occur and how long students are given between classes.  Once that information is in hand, NEVER ride across a campus during the class change times. Students seem to  be clueless.  That could be a bit harsh, it might be that they just can't see and hear traffic. Most students I have observed in the last four or five years are plugged into earbuds - playing their music/podcasts/listening to their friends on the phone at a high enough volume that I, as a passing cyclist, can clearly hear what they are listening to.  It does not matter if you have a bell or a car horn or an air horn. The plugged in student will not hear you. It also seems I have seen students at all times of day and in all weathers wearing dark sunglasses.  Students also seem to treat every inch of every road on campus as a cross walk. Stepping out from between parked cars and behind buses without looking. I can't tell you how many times I have had someone enter the street in the middle of a block less than a meter in front of me. Invariably I am the one they blame for their near miss. Thus far I have not hit a pedestrian, but I have gone down to avoid them twice - both times when the pedestrian came out from a concealed place did not look for traffic and stepped directly in front of me where there was no crosswalk.

Second: Bike lanes are not for bikes, they are extra sidewalks. The bike lane as sidewalk was a particular issue at Cornell and Oregon State. It is a bit ironic, getting dirty looks from drivers when riding in the car lanes instead of the bike lanes, and dirty looks from pedestrians when riding in the bike lanes rather than in the car lanes.

Third: at intersections with traffic signals and pedestrian signals, the moment the lights change and a pedestrian signal turns red, they cross.  This seems to be the modus operandi here at Rutgers Newark. Surprisingly this happens with cars as well as when I am the only vehicle waiting at the intersection. I have seen student and professorial types do this.

Forth: Although I have been told that bus drivers get training on looking for bikes, don't ever assume a bus driver has seen you, and use extreme caution around bus stops. This holds for city buses as well. I don't say this to be negative to the bus drivers. I have never been in the driver seat of a bus and thus have no idea where the blind spots are. For a bus taking on passengers, the driver is paying attention to a lot of things and may not have seen you come along side to pass.  Also, non cyclists seem to have no idea how fast a bike moves - they may think they have room to pull in after passing you but if you are moving faster than they realize their distance may not be adequate.

Fifth: Watch for bikes on the wrong side of the road and riders who pretend they are pedestrians to avoid stopping at red lights and stop signs. College campuses I have been on, with the exception of Rutgers-Newark, seem to be a hot spot for people riding their bikes on the wrong side of the road. Generally when I see it I call out that they are on the wrong side of the road, and usually I am met with blank looks.  This, and the habit some riders have of coming to a red light and riding through it on the pedestrian crosswalks, often times then turning left, are by biggest pet peeves regarding other riders. The turning left by first running a red light by riding in the crosswalk and then coming through the the green light of the cross street really frustrates me.  I have a spot on my commute where it does not feel safe to ride through and intersection. I would have to merge left out of a right turn only lane into a go strait lane at a spot where even at 6:45 AM there is lots and lots of traffic. I cross at the cross walk... but I get off my bike, wait for the pedestrian signal to say walk, and then I walk across the street and remount on the other side.  It is annoying and I would rather not have to get off my bike, but it is the safest way for everyone involved; motorists, pedestrians, and myself. I feel that every rider who disregards the rules of the road like this makes it more dangerous for me to ride my bike on the road. I don't own (and have never owned) a car, and many places I have lived, the bike has been my only option to run errands or to get to and from work in a timely fashion. I deal with the consequences of people's irresponsible actions leaving negative impressions on drivers every day.

Green means... hesitate?

I was reflecting this morning, on traffic lights... while on my commute (7 miles, 17 traffic lights, the 'burbs' to downtown Newark, NJ).

Most places I have ridden, a green traffic light is a non-item... just ride on through and enjoy the ride that little bit more for it not being interrupted by that light. Most places I have ridden are, however, rural. I could pick routes that had few if any traffic lights to get to most of my destinations.

Here though, in the outskirts of Newark riding into the city I was surprised to note that I feel differently about green lights once I cross over into the city proper. My commute starts in a town and 5 traffic lights and 2.5 miles later I am in a park that has only two lights. I enjoy the park for 3 or so miles and when I leave the park I am in the city and the remaining 10 lights await me in the last couple of miles.  Those lights are somehow different.  I have hit them all on red. I have hit half of them on red. I have never hit them all on green. I wonder if the later is somehow a subconscious thing. Today, when I did hit a couple on green... it felt shady, almost like I was doing something wrong, when riding on through.  It feels more natural to stop at them and wait. I have no idea why I feel this way. It feels quite absurd to not want to ride on through a green light. Yet I can't shake the feeling.

I have only been doing this commute for a few months. I moved to the Newark area in September and it took until January for me to get the nerve up to commute in such an urban area.  I was using the train from September through December - a very convenient, and for me relatively inexpensive transit option - but also one full of people sneezing and coughing and sniffling... and one which required me to adhere to a schedule that felt inflexible. I finally told myself to stop being a baby and just do it... and low and behold it was not as scary as I thought... but now I seem to fear the green lights.

Individual aesthetic

A few of the photos I have posted as part of my photo-a-day project and to the daily photo/fine art themes on Google+ have generated some good discussion. Many of the discussion points I have found most interesting center around what each individual looking at an image take away from it. What they like about it, what they would have liked to see done, and suggestions on how to improve/change the image.

As a photographer I am essentially self taught.  The only way for me to expand my comfort zone, grow my eye, and test my skills is to take lots and lots of pictures and to get feedback. I learned a lot with early feedback from college friend Dustin and his dad. I continue to learn with current feedback from the super active photographer and artist communities on Google+, and as I find my own personal aesthetic.  As a hobbiest, my own aesthetic is the only one I have to please. :-)

One of the things that initially really drew me to photography was the concept that 10 people looking at the same tableau will see 20 different views. And 10 people with cameras at the same spot will choose to take photos of different aspects of the spot, or shoot the same aspect in completely different ways. Then even if I take a few shots that are similar to those someone with me takes, how we post process those images further increases the variations that 10 people in one spot come up with.

I tend to try to keep post processing to a minimum, though in learning how to use my photo-processing software better, I do play with the extremes as well. I fairly frequently crop a given image in two different ways, "keeping" multiple crops. When I do play with extreme post processing, I sometimes keep several versions of an image as well.

Some examples of images that have generated some commentary and have been processed in more than one way are below.  In two examples below, the more heavily processed image went into my photo a day album, but I kept a minimally processed version as well.

This first image is the original of the business end of Fred. This is slightly cropped and very slightly edited for tone - fairly typical of how I typically post process images.  

In processing, I decided I preferred the square crop and slid the clarity slider all the way to the -100. I liked how it softened the edges on the leaf litter and the colors a little. 

With the one on the bottom I played with the the curves and liked the splash of larger than life color and how it brought out the spokes to me. The center image is my favorite and is the one I used for photo of the day.

This photo on the right  is close to original. I increased the blacks a little bit to obscure some of the detail in the reflection but otherwise it is pretty true to what I saw on that bridge.  The image on the right, I am not quite sure how I achieved that. I like how it turned the dark parts on the bridge - the reflected branches, the ends of the boards where the water wasn't pooling to gold, and added some color to reflected railings and completely flattened out the reflection of me. I like both: the organic simplicity of the almost monochrome original version, as well as the somewhat colorized and metallicized version. I like them for different reasons. 

The top one is the original image not even cropped (I forgot in my cold induced haze), just turned to black and white and posted as my photo of the day.

One of the comments I got on the image was a suggestion to crop it closer and maybe make it a little grainier.  I am not sure the best way to get the exact graininess I was hoping for (a task for the future to be sure) but I did make it a little grainier and I cropped it close.

The response to the second image was mixed. One person commented that they like the original better, and the person who suggested the close crop thought the foliage took away from message in the graffiti, and thought the second image worked better for him.

In all honesty, if I had cropped the image when I was initially working on it, I would not have cropped quite as close as in the second image. I like the implied line of rocks leading to the left corner of the bench as seen in the top photo. I am also not quite comfortable with the message so close to the top of the image. I guess I really need to do a take three on this image to see what I end up with.  I do like the graniness and the slight brightening. Adding grain is not something I would have thought of without a suggestion from others.

I love the discussion some photos generate, I love the post processing suggestions, I love the individuality of what each person sees in a given photo.

Keep it coming.

Help me keep on learning.

Singing rails

I have heard the expression "singing rails" but I hadn't really considered what it meant.  One part of my daily bike commute parallels a light rail line. The light rail cars are all electric and are fairly short and quite quiet. However, as one approaches, or after one has passed, the rails... sing.

Even if you can't see the train, you can hear the proximity of it. I assume it is a vibration travelling down the rails themselves. I would love to feel the rail after a train passes as well...  but I spent a formative year in England when young and they showed all sorts of nightmare inducing horror films about playing/hanging out/being near active rail lines... so I shall just enjoy the singing as I ride to and from work.

A few thoughts on commuting

To bike commute in the Newark area is many things:

It is 10 minutes of time stopped due to traffic lights.

It is afternoon sirens every day with the exception of this week Tuesday.  I start hearing them as I approach the 280 crossing and they seem to wail up and down both sides of Branch Brook Park until I cross under Bloomfield Ave and then things get quiet.  I have bike commuted every weekday I have been in NJ since January (with three exceptions) and this week Tuesday was the first time I have not heard sirens in the afternoon/evening on my way home.

With the exception of this week, mornings tend to be siren free.  Generally quite peaceful until I cross 280 and then it is city riding.  This morning, however, there was a moment of profound silence in the city.  It was deafening in it's utter lack of sound.

It is not necessarily a breath of fresh air.  I have had more second hand cigarette smoke while stopped at lights near cars where the driver/passengers are smoking with the windows open than ever before whilst riding.  Even when passing cars parked along side the road in Branch Brook.

It is not faster than the train, nor more relaxing for the first bit and last bit each way.

It does, however, make a huge difference in my daily outlook. I took the train yesterday out of pure laziness and I really missed the morning chill and the glow of the evening sun.

Tuesday was a bit of an odd day... Apart from the lack of sirens in the evening, the morning had two odd incidents. First, I came to a light that was red and stopped. Traffic on the cross street was moving normally and as expected their light turned orange, and one more truck turned left, and then the light turned red for the cross street and my light turned green. An ambulance, with no lights flashing or sirens on, stopped at the red light, watched me enter the intersection on my green light and then turned left (on red, on a two way street) across me. Again, no lights flashing or siren on.  The driver was looking me in the eye as he completely cut me off and made his illegal left turn.  The second was a police truck (around Newark there are cars and what look like armored trucks) came to a red light behind a car. The driver of the car was going strait, the police vehicle had no turn signals on... but went into the oncoming lane, went around the car, and turned right (on red at an intersection with a no turn on red sign) and again did not have emergency lights flashing or a siren on.  It reinforces being a defensive rider.

The closer to 5 o'clock I am on the road on my way home, the more encounters I have with impatient drivers honking at me or cutting me off or not acknowledging my presence.

Photo-a-day 2012 Week 2

I've noticed why going through the day's pictures, that I seem to take a bunch that try to capture something artistically and some which capture something I found interesting or intriguing or amusing, but are not really very artistic.  I may have to start my Things-i-saw-that-amused-me almost daily picture as well.

Anyway onto week 2:

Jan 8: There is nothing really to add to the photo from Jan. 8.  As a whole, people tend not to look up enough, and often miss what goes on right overhead.  I am fascinated by clouds and how to capture sky in photos. This was with the little point and shoot, as I was coming out of the grocery store.







Jan 9: The 9th was the day I bit the bullet and tried one of the several potential bike commute routes I had mapped out.  I have been a bit nervous of trying the commute since the overwhelming response I was getting from people around here was horror at the idea of going through this or that neighborhood. Anyway, the morning route was an exercise in roads I was not enamored of. The revised route home was much more promising and I was really happy to see it go close to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. This was a spur of the moment shot I took after a slightly hairy left turn into Brook Tree Park.  This will offer a lot of opportunities for photography.

Jan 10: The fax machine at work betrayed me and the department photocopier is not set up to scan to a PDF so I ventured forth to the library on campus to search for a scanner. I am embarrassed it took me so long to go. A nice building and the 4th floor, where media services was, also houses the Center for Jazz Studies. There was a display of mobiles hanging up inspired by jazz, and this photo is of a few of those mobiles.  I liked this as the photo of the day becuase of the combination of the lines and circles and shadows.

Jan 11: The 11th was a fairly gray day, and as the lighting wasn't great for a lot of what I had hoped to try to capture, so I explored around the Cathedral some more, going right around it. This is one of the resulting pictures. It does not capture exactly what I had hoped to, but I like the small bit with the cross on the right of the image. There are two of the large towers, but the one shown is different from the one on the right side of the building. I can't wait to shoot more of the building. I will have to put together an album of just the Cathedral.








Thursday the 12th dawned with a downpour, and it felt like it was night well into the afternoon. It was way too soggy to get the camera out on the way in to work, and pretty much too dark to take pictures anyway.  On the way home it was merely drizzling and with the dark sky and the dark water in the park, the reflections were really vivid.  I stopped in several places along the water to take photos. It was a tough to decide which reflection to use. I debated between a few and ultimately decided on the bridge. I can't say why, besides that I liked the effect of the sports field lighting on the water.

On the 13th the weather was equally stormy. I decided to take the train in because I wanted another go at some railings between the railroad station and campus. Before taking the train though, I had to stop at the post office and take care of a little laundry. On the way to the post office I noticed some fun reflections in the puddles along the way. By the time I was on the way back, the sky was leaden and the reflection lost the brilliance and interest.  The sun was out again on my way to the train and I snapped a few pictures, and only just barely made the train.

Today, the 14th is another day of tough decisions.  I started the day with a few shots of the bark on a sycamore outside my window. Then I went for a walk in the graveyard near the house and saw a lot of birds. Lots of material to choose from. I ended up choosing this male downy woodpecker. The graveyard was quiet when I walked in, but I began to notice movement as I slowly ambled through. I walked as close as I dared and sat down on a tree root and just leaned back and looked up. People do not look up nearly enough. Eventually the chirps and teaks and peeps resolved from sound into specific individuals. This fellow was almost directly above me. I also like how the branches draw the eye. Not a "pretty picture" per se, but a good reminder to broaden your gaze.

Photo-a-day 2012, week 1

Last spring and summer, despite doing several bike races, I failed to actually write most of them up.  In the fall I changed jobs and moved to a new state and did a fair bit of travel for work.  All that meant very little time on the bike. The work travel will continue, and the time on the bike will therefore continue to be curtailed.  I did start bike commuting again this past week and hope to make that a regular thing when I am not travelling.

Due to the lack of training time, I don't think I will race as full a schedule, or do as many "big" races. The work travel has broadened my photographic canvas though, and recent participation in #birdpoker and other daily photographic themes on Google+ has reignited my photographer bug.

As part of that, I have challenged myself to post one "artistic" photo a day in 2012. To date the vast majority of my photography has been natural landscapes and wildlife. The new job is in an urban setting and the photo-a-day will hopefully help me refine my urban eye and refine an urban style.

New years day found me in Upstate NY for the Ithaca count circle's Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I saw a fair number of birds, but I was counting mainly with binocs rather than my camera, and thus the photo from the first was not bird related, but rather a photo of some fungus on a tree.

I chose this image because I found the texture interesting to me.
Both the finer texture within each "lobe" of the fungus as well as the broader texture of all the lobes on the tree itself.

January 2nd found me and dad on our way to Waterloo NY to look for a snowy owl that had been hanging out on the buildings of the outlet mall up there, and hunting in the median of the highway.  We did not see the owl (the last time it was seen there was the day before we looked), but I did see this farm, that appealed to me. I am not sure how much I like the photo, or how well it captured the landscape, but I decided to use it anyway, because of the interesting sky.

On the 3rd, it was back to work. I had to return the rental car before heading in.  The rental place is near the Walnut Street Station in Upper Montclair.  I had about 20 minute to wait for the next train so spent my time looking around for some interesting things to snap pictures of. I noticed a few of the benches had interesting iron work.  None of the benches were placed against compelling backgrounds, so I had to crop. Aesthetically I found the antique coloration more compelling than the full color image.

Jan 4: I was not inspired by anything on my walk from the train station to work, but did explore some of the settings on my little point-and-shoot in the greenhouse at work. The manager has a large cactus collection as well as several orchids. I was playing with the macro settings on the camera and ended up liking one of them more than any of the other pictures I took that day. In post processing, I darkened the background a bit to really help the orchid pop.

January 5: Since starting my position with Rutgers-Newark, I have noticed a lot of interesting iron work on railings and balconies and fire escapes. Given the area I walk in, I have not wanted to carry the big camera around to take pictures, but I have been keeping a mental list of railings I wanted to come back to with a little camera. This is one of them. I will probably end up with enough railings to do a series on just them. ;-). I liked how the antique finish really focuses the image on the near railing, but this post processing did wash out the depth the original photo has. I may process this image a few different ways as part of an ironwork/railing series. Once I have managed captures of other bits of iron work I like, I will have to post a blog with a series.

January 6: I am the only person from my lab who comes in on Fridays. I like to leave a little earlier than strictly necessary to catch the train so I can explore the areas around campus a little. On the 6th I tried to capture buildings, or architectural components of buildings. For my photo of the day I decided to use this image of the public library. My next mission with regards to the library is to explore the inside. I love libraries! This photo was taken on a fairly overcast day.

January 7: last day of the week and I have managed to find one "share-worthy" photo each day :-) My goal this morning was to sleep in a bit. That didn't happen on account of a tree full of sparrows and starlings singing away outside my window.  I figured if they were going to wake me up they had to pay the price and become subjects for the camera.  The starlings proved a bit camera shy, but the house sparrow stood his ground and sang away. I do kind of wonder what any neighbors might have thought had they looked up and seen a zoom lens sticking out the bedroom window... Just spying on birds! I swear it! I did post this image a bit early in the day and thus didn't give myself a chance to consider photos I took later in the day at the beach.

Toona Stage 3

Today was a comedy of errors.

the stage was meant to be 91 miles long. A break went up the road at mile 8 or so with at least one contender from 9 of the 13 teams.

The field the slowed as very effective blocking took place.

Then the field was stopped and turned around as we went of course. We got back on course and were stopped not 10 minutes later when we got to where the break was neutralized. They then sent out the break and then the field at the original gap time. About 20 minutes later, 8 miles from the top of the 10 mile climb we were all stopped again because we we were directed off course a second time. The field was stopped and we had to wait for the break to be directed to turn around and come back to us and then we had to wait some more because the Men's 2 points guys and the Men's 3 points guys had to be let through. We then were sent up the road out of our little shaded spot out into the blazing sun and stopped AGAIN to wait for I am not sure what. Finally they started the break and then us.

The legs felt ok until that long stop and then could not going again up the remaining 8 miles of climbing (with an 18% grade at the top). I popped off there with a bunch of folks behind me and was alone at the top. It was supposed to be mile 50 at the top, but our wrong way sojourns meant it was mile 54.5. So I faced 40 miles alone. I was hoping the ladies behind me would catch me. but no dice. So I went careening off the mountain and set to work just going... but all of a sudden I came upon a stopped SRAM car and a group of 9 ladies. We were off course AGAIN. So we turned around, tried to get into a rhythm and then at an intersection with marshals we ended up going strait rather than turning because they were not paying attention (they had been out there all day in the hot sun). But they yelled and that time we did not go more than 100 yards before being set on course again. I lost contact with that group on the way past Feed 2 and up to QOM2 . At the feed my computer was reading 7 miles longer than it should have read. QOM2 was at mile 77 and QOM 3 at mile 86.

I kept turning over the pedals and was overjoyed to see the 10 km sign and the 5 km sign and was picking up my pace at the 3km sign. A moto ref then stopped me with 2km to go, because the cat 5 men's race was just started and they were going out the way I was going to finish! I was soooo mad! 2km to go and I had to stop! I must have been gaining on two ladies from that group of 9 though because they too were stopped there. The three of us then rolled in together.

My time for the 98.4 miles I raced was 5:25, but I was out on course for 6:13 due to the 48 minutes worth of stopped time. Of those 98 miles I was alone for probably 40 of them. We climbed 8615 feet today. Felt completely empty at the finish but have to find it in my legs to do a crit with a pack of super fast chicks tomorrow. They eliminated the time cut due to so many misdirections and so much stopped time.

Toona Stage 2 - finish on blue knob.

Not sure quite how to describe this. The staging area was crazy - even though Farm Team with our little tent was a small island of calm once everyone arrived.

This stage was a point to point race starting about 45 minutes from where we are staying in Altoona. The finish was about 45 miles from the start. So we had to get all 7 riders and bikes to the start along with our caravan car. We also needed to get enough vehicles to the finish so that we could get all the people and bikes back down off the mountain. Happily the race started at 2:45 so we could take our time in the morning and still have plenty of time for the vehicle shuttle.

Unfortunately we started at 2:45 and it was mid 90's and super humid at the whistle.

But back to the madness. There are 13 women's teams and 12 or 13 men's teams here. Each team had a caravan vehicle, plus there were moto refs and police cars and police motos and at least one ambulance and one broom wagon per field. Plus a couple comm cars per field, and two SRAM Neutral Support cars per field. There was also one helicopter for each field not to mention all the motos with photographers dangling off the back. So we had officials trying to herd caravan drivers into separate lines for each race. And riders milling about all over.

The men rode out first and we didn't start until after they had completed their two exhibition circuits of their town. We got very few pre-race instructions - we had a rolling enclosure so we had the whole road as long as we were inside the caravan, which mean no yellow line rule to be harangued about. The only thing they did remind us was that if we were seen throwing a bottle into a farmers field we would be fined $500... and possibly have to buy a sick cow. It seems that in past years cows have eaten discarded water bottles and that said ingested bottles get stuck in one of the stomachs, making for a sick cow in need of an expensive operation. So after that, we were told to have a safe ride and were started.

Our two exhibition laps around the start town were fast but not uncomfortable and the field felt steady and safe. From the exhibition we went screaming downhill and racing started. Pace was high but not unbearable and then we zoomed into the first climb... just before the last pitch I was dangling and then off. The ladies were flying and my legs were screaming. After the fact I found out it was in the mid 90's and humid.

Happily at the top I was not alone and eventually I ended up in a group of 7. We worked together so-so for a while and then three went up the road with one team mate. Amy warned me that one of the women was going to make a break for it and to get on her wheel. I was boxed and couldn't and the 4 I was with, two of us were working and two had given up. The two who had given up kept talking about how much they just wanted to get picked up. It was a tough spot for them because the Broom Wagon (yes it was labeled as such) was in theory supposed to stay behind the last person, but had passed us at mile 15. However it was a downer that they were not helping pull and were vocal about wanting to stop. We climbed the first QOM together (mile 34) and stayed together about 15 more miles until we hit the feeds zone (mile 50) where they dropped back and I assume stopped. The other woman and I (Suzie from PK Express) kept on riding and got into a good smooth rhythm of pulls. That took us to mile 68 and the bottom of the final climb to the finish. We came across one of my team mates a mile or so before the climb and Amy jumped in with us. The three of us separated on the climb with Suzie in the lead then Amy and then Me. My average speed to the bottom of the final hill was 19.7 MPH or so. If the final climb is included that drops my speed down to 17 point something. The winners of my field had an average speed of 20 point something including the final climb. They were flying! Apart from the First climb, the QOM, and the final climb, the terrain was constantly rolling - almost nothing flat in there.

Very happily for me the weather cooled off a little after that initial climb. We have two support crew with us and they were both in the caravan car (one to drive and one to hand bottles to the riders), so we had no one in the feed zone. We were told that the Comm cars and SRAM support cars had water and I suspect the Broom Wagon did as well, but being outside the caravan I was outside of feed support. It looked like I was going to do the full 74 miles with two bottles. I did get a feed from a support car from another team at one point. That was a bit nerve wracking - getting a bottle from a moving car, but I managed not to crash into the car or get run over so that was good... though I gave up a nice Competitive Cyclist bottle to do so.

It was fun watching the helicopter - I always knew where the field was. When still with field the downdraft from the chopper was noticeable and it was noisy. It was also odd having the whole road. I found myself very unwilling to cross the yellow line. There was a bit of a rumble strip on the yellow on a number of roads too. The strips weren't bad to ride across, but if you were caught unawares it could be a rude awakening.

In all on the day we covered 74 miles with 6320 feet of climbing. For me that came out to a 2340 calorie ride.

My time, approximately 3o minutes behind the leaders was within the time cut and that means I race the 91 miles tomorrow. Yesterday's race finished at the Blue Knob Ski area. Tomorrow we will climb that hill again in the middle of the race. This time we will go up the back side, and it will take us 10 miles to gain the elevation instead of the 6 from yesterday. From what I hear at the very top we get some packed gravel and a bit of 18% grade. That should be fun. That climb is from mile 40-50 and is the first QOM. Then we go screaming down the road we climbed up yesterday and do some rolling terrain before we hit QOM 2 at mile 70 and QOM 3 at mile 79. The last 12 miles is supposed to be predominantly downhill.

Official results are posted at Cyclingnews.com. The results are incorrect and somehow they think I finished some 10 minutes ahead of when I actually finished. Not sure what happened with that. None of my team mates have the wrong times... just me and all of them are in the results so I wasn't mistaken for one of them. I guess they wrote my number at the bottom of the wrong sheet of paper, and did not correct it. We discovered that after the protest period so I believe it will hold. I certainly did not get 10 minutes worth of time bonuses! The error in the results did not affect my ability to ride tomorrow, since all the women made the cut - including those who did actually finish behind me.

Toona TT

So we all rode down to the start from our lodgings (couple of miles) and it was hurry up and wait. They were measuring bikes for UCI legality at the start and we were initially told we could have the bikes checked (weighed and measured) an hour before so we had time to make adjustments as necessary. Once there they said nope we had to wait until all the men had started. So it was find Chris and Scott (our crew) to change wheels for those who brought disc wheels and helmets and to eat and drink.

For me that was also time to practice some held starts. I have chickened out of being held the few TT's I have done this year and Toona had a big scary ramp so I was going to take a standing start. But Chris gave me some pointers and practiced with me a few times and I decided I would most like make it off the ramp the right way - rolling down on top of the bike, rather than fall off the side like I was afraid of.

I thought that since I was riding a road bike with clip on aerobars that I would be OK, but for peace of mind (didn't want to find out 10 mins before start that I had to make adjustments, I had mine checked... Seat was too far forward... so it was off to SRAM neutral support to have it moved back a cm. Then back to be remeasured and corralled in the start house.

Up on the ramp I got clipped in with both feet (for me the hardest part of the held start) and was so focused on not leaning that when they said go I froze. Lost a couple seconds on that. but then it was down the ramp and into the first two corners in a blink of an eye.

Then the 8 block in the areobars section hammering up hill ... took me about half the course to get into the rhythm of the corners.

When I finished I heard the announcer talking about that I was riding a regular bike with aerobars attached. I was too busy expelling lung tissue to pay much attention though.

I did a couple miles or so in warm down trying to figure out how to get back to the staging area without riding on the course, and took off the clip on bars and moved my seat forward again and hung out for a time. None of us were called for doping control so we rode back to our lodging for dinner.

Results are not on the web yet.

7/7 9AM: found some results up at Cyclingnews.com ... not dead last but not far out of it. 72/77 starters. With a time of 6:40 I was one minute down on the leader. Our best placed rider, Jenny Ives, was 33rd, 28 seconds down.

Tour de Toona TT preview

The tt course will be fun

A fair bit of up and down, a couple good spots for aero positioning and a lot of short blocks where it will basically just be one long arc. Not sure how it will race but it was fun to ride this morning. There is one whoop de whoop where there is a gentle climb up and then the ground just plummets away from you and then it flattens out at the bottom for a road crossing and then shoots back up again. That spot where it flattens out looks like it isn't possible to do at speed but it can be done. We also turn down some little alley way that is covered for a block - looks like we are pulling into a bank teller.

So we start, hammer two blocks make a left and a long block later a right. Then we cruise 8 blocks mostly up with that whoop de whoop in there, then take a right up a steep pitch then a block later make another right going down pretty good. That levels out and climbs a little and we are on that leg for 4.5 blocks. Then another right (down hill) followed a block later by a sweeping left which continues to go down for three blocks. then it is an slight uphill left, one block, right, one block, left, one block, right into the covered alley for two blocks then a left for a short block followed by a right for two blocks with a gentle left curve/ chicane for two blocks then right, one block,right, two blocks, left 1/2 block, right and then it is hammer the two blocks to the finish.

Hot and sunny here today.

I am hoping for a little cooler tomorrow.

Looks like we ladies are expected to start around 7:20 tonight.

Men going out at 6.

Start times should be posted soon.

3:07 PM: Just got the start times, My teammate Amy Kneale is the first woman off the line, 10 minutes after the last guy starts. I start at 6:58:30 - the 3rd Farm Team woman to go. Got word we can wear skin suits from other teams, so Team Delphine will be representing tonight... I hope I don't pop out of that size xs skin suit...

3:37 PM: My number is 428

CX Race 9: Power Cross

Final race of the 2010 season! It was our coldest race of the season - upper 30's and windy, but the sun was shining. The shining sun did not mean there was no mud. The course started in the park driveway and then turned us into a large flat field. It looked like it should be a power section, but was supper wet and soupy. That soupy with water became soupy with mud as the laps passed. From there we had a dry power section that led into a super steep climb with barriers placed smack dab in the middle. We had a couple of zigs and zags at the top before we had a rough fast down hill into an almost 180 turn a small climb, another descent, a jump off the lip of a driveway we crossed, some turns into a second set of barriers, followed by some road before we went back into that soupy mess that was the lower field. The laps felt long, but that was because there was little rest due to the mud. Those with only one bike were definitely not firing on all gears in their later laps. those who had two bikes were doing bike swaps every lap and they didn't get quite the resistance training the rest of us got.

When they started the master's men and open women the lap counter showed something absurd like 9 laps. Half of those lined up were ready to pull out right there before the start whistle blew saying there was no way their bodies or bikes could handle 9 laps. We were assured that after our first lap the lap cards would be adjusted, and right they were. The lead ladies only did 5 laps. I managed not to get lapped by any women. they did get the results wrong. LiLynn actually finished in front of me - they missed her on one lap. LiLynn and I were riding together for most of the race. The results have me down as 4th but I should be down in 5th.

Results are at Bike Reg.

CX Race 8: Dave Panella Memorial Cross

The Dave Panella Memorial race took us back to Greene for another weekend of cross racing. This time at a park rather than a school. The whole course was out in the open in fields with a couple of parking lot crossings. Not a lot of elevation loss/gain this week. I found that made it more difficult for for me to keep up with those in front of me. After the main races, there was a fun relay with 2 person teams. Our team mates were randomly assigned and we were left to decide between us who would ride the first leg and who would do the seconds leg. I rode first leg. Each leg involved doing one lap of the course. I did my one lap and then had to down a cup of beer, jump rope 10 times, and then tag off to my partner. She then drank a beer, jumped rope, and rode a lap. There were only two jump ropes for the 10 or so teams to share so some folks opted to do push-ups instead. It really looked funny with folks in full on bike kit jumping rope and doing push-ups with empty beer cups around them on the grass and a few people on bikes. Pictures were posted all over Facebook.

Results of the "serious" racing are at Bike Reg.com

Some video footage of the men's A race is on YouTube. I have also posted video from several other cross races as well, including Syracuse Grand Prix, and Red Cross.

CX Race 7: Greene Cross

Greene cross was held at a school in Greene, NY. The course featured a lot of grassy riding including some great off camber and side hill turns, some teeth rattling fast riding through the woods, a nice run-up in the forest, and one of those super hypnotic and surprisingly difficult to ride spirals. The spirals were tough to ride because the course was marked with little surveyor flags and I found it difficult to see the path while riding. The effect looked really fun when watching other fields go through it though.

Results are up at Bike Reg.com.

Marsha and Pat Kapinus took lots of pictures and posted them here at shutterfly. You can click on the "view album" link from this site and see the pictures without creating an account.

CX Race 6: Chenango Forks CROSSFire

Despite somewhat sore arms from RedCross I got up Sunday morning ready for more fun with the bike... but first I had to clean the darned thing since it was super covered with mud. KrossFire was a friendly low key event hosted by Marsha and Pat Kapinus on their property. There were a few places where riders had a choice - over some good muddy whoops or through a zigzag, and over the barriers or through a different zig zag. There was also one spot where we could go over a second set of barriers or take the sew saws over them. There was also a fun tree hug inducing set of muddy tight turns through the trees, a climb that got harder each lap due to increased mud, and some tough riding through soggy grass. Unlike Saturday, there were several section where you could just power through rather than the constant state of transition we had on Saturday. The highlight of the race was the amazing potluck after the race.

Results are up at BikeReg.com.

CX Races 5: Red Cross 2.0

Ouch!

Super physical course that was almost all transition. For me that translated into very technical. The warm up lapped kicked my butt and held some surprises - the uphill whoops had a pedal smacking risk if your pedal stroke was mistimed, the tunnel was full of mud - quite the surprise on the warm up lap, the flat whoops were really tough to maintain velocity on without getting air on the first two and pedaling through the rest. The run up was a good challenge, the "big downhill" was super scary and the loss of momentum on the way up the other side was quite the stomach flip-flopper.

Ruth and I entered the 35+ masters race which we started with the masters men. In the race I must have taken every line through every technical-to-me section of the course. They all seemed to be the wrong lines. Despite one lap in which I seemed to have completely forgotten to how to ride a bike, I managed to keep the rubber side down.

Approximately 10 minutes after I finished the 35+ race, the open women took off. I had time to run to the rest room and poke a bunch of mud out of the brakes and fork and get started again. The second race was no easier than the first though the course had dried out a bit. That made some of the snottier spots easier to ride but the thicker mud dried up more; making the ruts harder to deal with.

It was a tough day of racing, but probably good for me. By the end of the second race the "big downhill" with it's short steep climb afterwards was starting to make me feel a bit motion sick. I stayed for the open men's race afterwards and took some video footage. That is posted on YouTube.

Jim Danvers was out and he got me in shot 4445. Jim's pictures are at Jim Danvers Photography.

Links to the results are up at the FLCC webpage.

Quick Trip to MT

No race this weekend. Instead I was off to Bozeman to photograph a wedding and see a few of my Bozeman friends. I had thought about trying to do a local Bozeman race, and Bill even offered to scare me up a bike to use. Unfortunately (or is that fortunately?) the race overlapped with the wedding by about half an hour, so no racing. It was nice to have a weekend off the bike.

I arrived in Bozeman late Friday night and Saturday was taken up with wedding set up and photography and post party clean up. Sunday was a lazy day with Laurie. I provided comments from the peanut gallery as Laurie did a cabinet cleanup and reorganization. We then went for a nice walk on the Sourdough Trail. Supper on the 31st was with Laurie and the Rognlie clan. An amazing meal and lots of fun watching Matt and the girls transform themselves for Halloween. After supper Laurie and I stopped in for a quick visit with Mollie and Tyler.

Monday I convinced Laurie to play hookie from work and we went to Yellowstone. Not a spectacular wildlife day, but we did have a couple of firsts for me in the park. The first first was we actually went for a hike rather than just staying in the pull out parking lots. It was nice to get off the road and it felt like we were the only people in the park with the tourist season over. The other first happened on the walk when we were challenged and then followed by a lone bull bison. We were well over the "do not approach within" distance outlined by the park, but I laughed at the bull as he rolled in a dust bath with his skinny legs waving in the air and both Laurie and I were wearing red. Either way, we were discussing whether we should go past him on the trail or go off trail to get around him when we decided to move a little further down the trail to see where the trail actually went with regards to the dust wallow when he turned towards us and did a short charge, halving the distance between us. We immediately headed off trail (a park no-no) and headed for some sparse tree cover. As we moved away from our friend the bull, he started walking after us. Happily he was just ambling in our wake rather than renewing his charge. We elected to circle a long way back to the trail and head back towards the car. We made it back with no harm done and continued on to Cook City before turning around and heading back to Bozeman. That night Jared and Anna took me to dinner.

Tuesday morning I got up early and met Bill for coffee/breakfast at Rockford before I headed back to the airport for the long trip home. I spent my airport and plane time working on the following week's Bio lecture and grading exams.

CX Race 4: Syracuse Grand Prix

Jeremy, Jack, and I loaded up and headed out of Ithaca at 8:30 AM along with several pieces of apple pie and a bin full of cookies. After a bit of confusion with the construction at the 81/690W interchange we got to Long Branch Park, the venue for the day's muddy fun.

We arrived just after 10 and had time to pick up our numbers, get dressed and take in a lap or two for warm up and course recon. Hrm. Not that many tight turns and only 2 or three at a time. Lots of strait aways. Two mud pits. Long muddy strait away leading into a very soggy and slow grassy stretch leading into a hill with some pitch to it and some sand with a couple turns thrown in the mix.A side hill with s turns. A few sections of gravel. A whoop de whoop that you could get air off of. Looked like a tough course and a tough group of women to face off with.

On my first trip around I found some of the lines, had trouble with some, and found the side hill s turns rather terrifying.I couldn't ride the sandy hill the first time through, but I did manage it the second practice trip. Second time around David talked me through those same s turns and showed me a line through the muck and later while i was getting nervous at the start, explained a good line for the climb. Then it was time to go.

A group of 7 immediately gapped the rest of us... then there was me... and a bit behind me was the rest of the field. No man's land. Well at least that meant I didn't have to worry about bottle necks. At least until about half way through the first lap when I caught up to a few folks on the climb. Despite being around others, I was still able to get up the hill and ride the line I wanted. After that I slowly started passing some of the men and then one of the women. Eventually I passed several more women and a few of the men looked familiar. At this point I was pretty sure a couple of the men and women I had passed were riders I was lapping. Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) the lead men lapped me on my 5th lap - the lead guy was on his final lap when he caught me just before the mud pits. That meant I was also on my last lap. I am not sure where the 2nd guy lapped me - I was trying to focus on what was going on in front of me rather than what was coming around me from behind. The third place guy caught me at the bottom of the hill though. I was a little bummed about finding out half what through the lap I though was my second to last lap that I was really on my last lap. I had been closing in slowly but surely on some more women - women I was pretty sure I was catching rather than lapping and I was confident that barring any surprises I would have passed at least one of them with an additional lap. I managed a 5th out of 11 women in the open category and 7th out of 15 if you include the 4 women who raced in the masters category but started at the same time as the open women.

I found the course a challenge. The side hill S was not as tough as I had been afraid it would be. I was even OK on the passes where the left foot was on the downhill side. The side hill pass by the tree was a little awkward, but I managed that as well. The big soupy double track at the bottom of the course wasn't bad along the left most side in the trees and the soup along the lake was slow but ridable along a number of lines and I passed people there almost every lap. I did have trouble with mud pits each time and it wasn't until I finished and was on a warm down lap that I realized through the middle of the puddle was the least squirrelly route through. You learn something every race I guess.

I started catching men who started a minute before me early and steadily passing more as the race went on, and being in a position late in the race of catching women and lapping women. The twisty nature of the course also made for short sight lines and difficulty in knowing where the folks in front of me were. I was expecting the men to lap me at some point, but I had no idea they were bearing down on me when I did get passed. All this not knowing where I was during the race, or what was happening around the next bend made me realize that for a mid to back field rider like me it is best to focus energy on getting around that next bend, or over the rough terrain in front of me rather than on worrying over where how many riders are ahead or behind. I realized that for me the best mindset to be in was that for a time trial. Using the riders ahead as rabbits to help keep the intensity high, but focusing on the moving forward, on getting over the terrain ten feet in front of me.

I took several short video clips of the open men who raced after my race ended. I strung those clips together into a single 10 minute video which I posted on YouTube.

Results are up on the Onondaga Cycling Club website and at BikeReg.com.

CX Race 3: SwanDrome

10/10/10 so a 10th place might be the "win" for the day.

Lots of cycling going on in NY State and PA this weekend and it seems like all the heavy hitters headed into Pennsylvania for Iron Cross. I opted for a weekend at home and chose to do SwanDrome Cross. With the venue not even 3 miles from home, how could I not. I expected a small field given the number of people who were doing Iron Cross, but perhaps with the heavy hitters gone those of us who are mere mortals at the sport felt more comfortable coming out to play. At what by all accounts was a small local event, we had a 12 women!!! What a great turn out! Several of the women were giving cross a go for the first time as well.

The first timers and the rest of us chose a perfect day to play. It was sunny, the trees were absolutely on fire in their fall finery, and the course was long and challenging, though not as muddy as feared given the mid week rains. That is, of course, not to say that there was no mud on the course.

The day kicked off with two kids races - one for the youngest youngsters - those with push bikes and bikes with tiny wheels. They did an impressive loop around the house and the pond. A very impressive showing by those little ones. The second kids race doubled the fun and did two laps of the little race. It was an exciting finish with first and second place neck in neck coming into the line. The winner took the honors by less than a wheel.

After the youngsters had their fun it was time for the "adults" to duke it out. The men took off and the women were told that when there was a "reasonable gap" in the men's field we would be set loose - instantly mingling with the men's field and allowing a single lap counter to take care of both races. The first 6 guys came into site with a decent gap behind them. That gaps seemed to shrink as they took the sag around the pond, and it appeared perilously small when we were told to join the mix. The guys who all of a sudden found themselves having to make their way through a gaggle of gals seemed to take it in stride and with good cheer.

The course started in some wet grass and then went onto a double track in the woods, where we slalomed around some logs, made a few turns and climbed up a short hill. Then it was back down the hill on a mix of double track and single track, up the other side of the hill and into the border of the lawn and the woods where we did a series of zig zags before diving back into the woods, down a short steep pitch and back up to the field after a short piece of single track. Once back up on field level we went around some fields, including some down hill and one bumpy and wet uphill with a single barrier at the top where it was tough to get enough momentum for a quick remount. Then it was into a zig zag, around an off camber turn that meant swimming in the pond if you didn't make it, and around the pond. From the pond we hopped on the gravel driveway came into a 180, faced off with a double barrier, did another 180 and were on the start line.

Right from the gun, three of us emerged from the front of the pack with LiLynn up front then me in second for a short time and Sarah behind me until she found a good place to pass. Starting lap three all three of us were right together. Somewhere in there Sarah snuck by LiLynn, but we were pretty tight. That is until I utterly flubbed the remount of the single barrier. I had very little momentum and when I "jumped" back on the bike, my foot completely missed the pedal. With no forward momentum on the slight up and bumpy ground I had to put a foot down again and essentially started from a dead stop... with Sarah and LiLynn long gone in front of me. I lost a little more time to the two of them on each of the remaining 3 laps as I just could not get that remount down. Happily I was not as much of a disaster on getting back on the bike at the double barrier in the start finish area - where all the spectators were hanging out. My effort was good for a 3/12, about a minute behind Sarah and LiLynn who stayed together the whole race. The men lapped those two just meters before the end of their 6th lap. We were initially told we would be doing 7 laps, but in cross when you get lapped you do fewer laps since the race is run for a certain amount of time rather than for a specified distance. Since the men lapped Sarah and LiLynn just before they (the men finished), the two women were told they were done when just seconds later they finished their 6th lap. LiLynn had been planning to attack Sarah on the 7th lap and go for a win. As it was, Sarah managed the win. I was pretty much in no man's land so all of a sudden finding myself done didn't affect my race at all. Fourth place was about a minute behind me.

A fun day on a tough course. A huge thanks to Glenn and Marcia Swan for hosting the race.

CX Race 2: CX Brewery Ommegang

One week and two practices after my first attempt at cross at Buck Hill I gave it another go at the Ommegang Brewery on October 3rd. The weather was sunny and warm (in the sun) and the course was tacky and fast by the time my race ("Elite" women) came along. Elite being place inside those quotation marks because the field was for all the women's USAC categories.

The course started in a super wide grassy field then headed into a series of super tight turns that lead into a short bit of single track and a climb that in some years is a run-up. Immediately after climbing that hill we dropped back down into a zigzag and then a strait away into a tight s curve at the bottom of another hill. We descended that one as soon as we crested it and went into a section of 180's that ended with an off camber left hander with a double barrier immediately after the turn. The barriers were on a slight side hill. Just past the barrier was another turn that took us through the beer tent, around a bend and back through the start.

The women's race was supposed to be 45 minutes. I was focused on the people and terrain in front of me and never once looked up at the lap counters... I just kept riding until the officials told me I was done. Luckily Jeff Poulin was not of a mind to send me out for extra laps.

Often times races head into a tight section of course pretty soon after the start, so a fast start is pretty important. The less time you spend bottle necked and trying to get around people the more time you have to ride hard at your own speed. Knowing I am not very strong in the "technical" parts of 'cross, I am hesitant to go for a front line start, plus I don't have the sprint for it. I had a pretty timid start at Ommegang - probably one of the last 2 or 3 around the first bend. They started the single speeders 30 seconds to a minute behind us and the juniors just behind them. Despite my slow start I still went into the curves in a tight line. The single speed men and a couple of juniors started coming past us in that section, creating quite the chaotic scene to ride through. I survived the first lap and even passed a person or two, and then systematically started chasing down individuals in front of me. I managed to pass at least one person on each lap and even snuck back past a few of the juniors and single speed guys who barreled on by in the first 1/2 mile. My effort was good enough for a 12/23.

Official results are posted at BikeReg.com. There were several folks out taking pictures on race day and pictures of me in various poses of ineptitude can be found online. Wrekkers77 posted his photos on flicker. I think I am only in the one of all the women at the start. Most of these pictures look to be of the Elite men.

Mark Williams also posted some 400 pictures from the race. Pictures from the women, single speed and juniors start at #176. I am in pictures 187, 188, 221, 269.