First Bike Commute

After weeks of saying I was going to do it, I finally commuted to work via bike! I ended up riding 20.71mi in about 1:30min. I gave myself 1:45, just in case I got lost, which I sorta did. Here's the commute map:


Today was the perfect day to ride. The morning air was already in the 60s. I only had a tank top and shorts on and was only cold a few times. I woke up around 5:30am and got out the door for 6:20. The first few miles felt so long and I was nervous it was going to take me forever. I got up the hills with hardly any problems, and my average speed was 13.5 which isn't terrible considering I didn't stop my Garmin for crossings.

In the Woodmont section of Milford, I had the biggest surprise of my ride. I had been in the Woodmont section twice, once in my car checking out the commute and again on my birthday ride. I immediately noticed what I thought to be giant squirrel nests. Well on my ride this morning, I saw what I thought was a brilliantly bright Goldfinch. On further inspection I realized it was NEON GREEN. What are PARROTS doing in CONNECTICUT?! It wasn't until later at work that I found out more about the Monk Parakeets of Milford.

Most of the ride was really enjoyable. The shore areas are beautiful, so are the colonial style New England town centers. I went from urban New Haven, through West Haven and Milford's shoreline, suburbia and quaint town centers, across 95, down the Sikorsky bike path which crosses a scenic Housatonic River. For all those out there who may happen upon this blog, the Sikorsky bike path can be reached at Wheeler's Farm Rd in Milford. I tried so many times on my morning commute to figure out where the entrance was when I got on 15.

I arrived at work for 8am so I got on the treadmill and ran 2.25mi. I need to get used to running after biking, and I figured it'd be a good opportunity to practice. Unfortunately I did not ride back home. I was feeling great and energized til about 3pm when my body crashed. I tried to drink some highly caffeinated tea, but it only worked for about half an hour before I was feeling tired all over again. Lame. Thankfully my coworker drove me home, and he lives close enough by me it's not too out of the way for him. I hope to ride in once a week, and perhaps one of these days ride both ways.

In other news, I purchased pedals tonight. After much research and guesswork I decided upon the 2009 Look Keo Sprint Pedals, in red:

I really hope I made a good decision, though who the hell knows. I searched for so long, liked the reviews about them and found a site with them for the cheapest price. As soon as I added it to my cart, when I looked again at the description it said sold out. So apparently I had the last ones available in my cart. Either that or they have some coding trickery going on. In any case I felt it was now or never at the price I was getting on the site, and had to make a decision. I'm sure they'll be fine, I just wasn't expecting to pay over $100 for freaking pedals.