Today I finally commuted on my bike. I have been talking about this for a while and today was the day to pony up. I rigged my mountain bike last night with head and tail lights and got some other various commuter supplies ready.
This morning at 6:20 I was on the road to Swedish American Hospital for my pediatric clinical rotation. It was a short ride, but good little warmup to riding my mountain bike with a large/heavy backpack on. It is not exactly a fast setup, but it is practical. By the time I finished with clinical it was almost 12:45. With class scheduled at 1:45, I knew timing was going to be a little tight. I quickly road home and wolfed down a PB & Jelly sandwich, switched out some textbooks and was on the road by exactly 1:01:30.
In order to make it in time to print off preclass lecture notes, I was going to have to ride my mountain bike more like a speedy road bike... I was making pretty good time but not good enough. I decided I needed to start taking some shortcuts. Bad idea. I am not from Rockford and still don't know the area as well as St. Paul or Cedar Rapids. My shortcuts were initially working but I eventual got caught in a deadend/cul-de-sac area.
I could hear the traffic from a main road to the north of me and knew thats where I needed to be to stay on track. I was blocked in though. There was a large grassy/timberish field with various terrain and a few commercial type buildings between myself and where I needed to be. I couldn't even see the main road, but I could here it. I slowed down and paused for about 5 seconds and then thought "hey, I am on a mountain bike, I don't need roads"! So I built up some speed, hopped the curb, and was "off roading". It wasn't long before I saw the busy main road. I crossed it and was back on track. Disaster averted. I looked at my watch and was making pretty good time. Until, "uh oh" a DETOUR sign. The city picked today to do roadwork. I thought about busting through the road work section in a sprint but thought I better play this one safe. Unfortunately the detour took me through some pretty heavy traffic. I zigged/zagged a little and cut through the last block on a grassy field. When I arrived at the bike racks my watch said 1:30:30. WHAT A BLAST! I have never had this much fun on my way to class.. I took my seat in class with a little bit of sweat on my brow, but it was worth it. I felt a little bit like a kid again. After making the return commute home here is my estimated bike totals for the day.
Total Ride Time = 1:10:00
Estimated Distance = 20 miles
