Bike Commute 2011 - Day 10

This is for Friday, 13 May 11

IN - Started at 4:19 again and again I got in at 4:54, same exactly as Wednesday. That's strange since this felt like a much slower trip.

I was caught by nearly every light. I was even caught by the light at Libertyville high school (which is never red when I go by) and the one by the Luthern church. Libertyville HS was especially strange since there were cars waiting.

I have to confess that I blew the light at St. Mary's Road. It was red with a car waiting as I approached and I thought I would never make it, but I kept pedaling. When I was just short of the begining of the left turn lane (which I consider to be the distance limit from a green light that will allow me to cross, given the length of the transition from green to yellow to red) it turned green so I started pedaling furiously. I was doing very well when about 2/3 of the way up the turn lane it turned yellow. I leaned forward and gave it all I had. I usually don't even enter an intersection when it's yellow, but this is a long light and no real way for me to trigger it alone. When I got to the intersection the light turned red. The yellow was probably less than 5 seconds. Not really a useful yellow, since isn't it supposed to warn you and give you enough time to stop? I probably could have stopped, but I could see that the car drivers crossing Hawley hadn't yet registered that it was their green. They were still at a dead stop. So I went.

I'm a very bad boy and I will have to do penance somehow. Oh, and my nose was runny again despite the fact that it was in the 70s this morning.


HOME - I'm writing this Monday morning and I can't hardly remember my ride home Friday. That's not good, since I really didn't want it to just become the sort of commute that everyone has, one that you can't remember. That a big part of recording my rides, so they will make sure I pay attention to the ride and not put myself on autopilot, because I'm going to have to report on it.
 
I can tell you that it was ominous with the temperature cooler than the ride in and the clouds and wind. When I left my building I stopped and repacked my stuff in case of rain. I thought I was racing a storm all the way home. I had a bit of a tail wind and the ride was very quick.
 
It felt like it could possibly be faster than my ride in to work because of the racing feeling, but as it turned out it was 5 minutes slower. And it never did rain until after night fall.
 
I'm going to really have to pay more attention, and not just for photo ops.