Eddie Welker.com

I rode my bike to work today. It was the first time I had done that in an excruciatingly long time. Everything in the world came up between. The weather over the last few days, however, has been so nice that I couldn’t resist any longer. So last night I put a new tube in the front wheel, and took the Lemond bike that wouldn’t kill me (39 x 17 lower fixed-gear ratio, shown to the left) rather than the one (my fav. Bianchi, 42 x 15) that was ready-to-go, but may have killed me.

It turns out that neither would have killed me. I made it up the rather stiff hill in front of NIH quite easily. Didn’t get to work gasping for air, feeling sore legs, anything. Really quite boring, come to think of it. But it was a great day to be outside. It’s too bad that the trip is so short as it wasn’t quite the work that I would like, but I can only take what’s given to me. The next day I have more time, I am going to venture around downtown Bethesda. Seems like a fairly bike-friendly town. I don’t really make New Year’s Resolutions, as they’re more birthday resolutions to me, but I am definitely going to ride more this year. Last year was a long string of mistakes. Beach road, here I come.

Not that I want to jinx this beautiful weather, but I have gloves, my head warmer and all the rest lined up for when it returns to normal January weather.