Sunday Bike Ride

I went for a long bike ride today.  I am aware that every weekend where I can ride a bike may be the last one for a while so I'm trying to get out.  November is also the month I typically stop running, almost completely until my traditional Thanksgiving Long Run.  I'm trying to keep up the cardio until then.

After fixing my bike yesterday I was all excited for a ride.  The weathermen were telling me there would mostly sunshine with a few clouds.  There was going to be very little wind.  The temperatures were going to be in the 40s.  Sounds perfect.  The weathermen lied about almost everything.  They were correct about the wind speed being very low.  There was no sunshine.  So much so that I wonder if I'm going insane and losing the ability to sense light.  (Hello Seasonal Affective Disorder).  The temperature was 40, not "in the 40s".  I went for a ride anyways.

It was basically a nice ride and I was happy to be back on the big comfy bike, air in the tires and all.  I did an unusual amount of this ride on the roads though; something I'll need to correct next time.  For today I work bike shorts, sweat pants, sock liners and wool socks, thermal shirt, vest and a wind breaker coat.  I did wear gloves.  I also wore the clear 'sunglasses' that bikers (and I think some speed skaters) wear to protect my eyes from the wind.  The glasses were great except they fogged up the moment I stopped moving which made the above mentioned traffic lights even more interesting.

First view of the day - RiverLake Greenway (I sometimes call it the 40th Street Greenway) - heading over 35W towards Nicolette Ave.  There's a cool view of downtown from this bridge; I'm not sure why I took this picture instead.

Bryant Avenue bikeway.  I try to never operate a motor vehicle on this road.  It's legal to drive on the road but designed for bikes.  As such there are a ton of bikes and it's not fun to be in a car in that situation.  I always try to ride my bike here; it's a really good connector from the RiverLake Greenway to the Midtown Greenway.

I found my way past all the construction that got me turned around on Friday.  From far away it looked like the whole Greenway was closed.  Not so, just an exit ramp to Dean Ave, but they did a good job of making it look really serious.

Lake Cedar: It's been waaaay too long.  I can't actually remember the last time I saw the lake but I'm sure it was well before the marathon.  It looks cold and lonely with no swimmers or boaters or fishers.

Heading onto the Luce Line Trail and into downtown Minneapolis.  There were a few other bikers out today; more and more walkers and still a couple people fishing from the shore.  As the seasons change there are fewer and fewer bikers.  You have to mean to be out here on a bike.  The walkers tend to stay steadier.  They're more of an all seasons breed.

After counting the bikers I saw on one hand, suddenly I was in downtown Minneapolis.  Downtown Minneapolis is the most confusing place on the planet.  Having no sunshine made it even harder to orient myself to what freaking direction I was moving.  I did fine some of the new protected bicycle tracks.  I liked them because there were no pedestrians to annoy me like I imagine there are during busier times.  I found a great view of city hall and eventually then found my way to Portland Ave which would take me home.

The Portland Ave situation is basically great until I wanted to take a left turn.  The bike lane is so wide and the right turn situation was handled really clearly at all the big intersections.  I knew when to look for cars, when they would/should be crossing the bike lane, etc.  And then I had to get out of that super big bike lane, across two lanes of traffic and take a left.  It was Sunday afternoon and the Vikings game was almost on so I had no problems, but I imagine that's a hairy prospect at other times of the week.

All in all, I got to try some new bike paths, especially downtown, and had a good day.  But I miss the sunshine.