Beating the storm

Yesterday evening as the big storm that had been running along side of the city for hours, was finally about to hit us I was taking off from work for my commute home. I’d decided (probably against better judgment) to ride home despite the impending ruckus and within the ten minutes between looking at the radar at my desk and then walking by a coworker’s cube on the way out and seeing the new image I knew I had a very limited amount of time to get home. I figured all was well here though since I wasn’t racing at greenbelt and needed a workout anyway so a hard ride would be good. The hard ride I got ended up being much different then what I expected.

It seems in my subliminal desire for efficiency I’ve worked out the perfect pace for my commute home as a relatively easy ride with very few interruptions from lights. In riding faster then this pace I essentially achieved no decrease in time since every time I tried to ride faster I ended up pulling up to a red light to wait for traffic to clear and lights to change. So, essentially I had a great drag race ride home of quick hard acceleration followed by hard braking at each light (eerily similar to what we cyclists always laugh at cars for doing). While I didn’t decrease my commuting time by much I did manage to get what is probably a great sprinting workout due to all the hard starts. I guess that’s one good way to look at it.

I luckily managed to get to my street just as the real heavy winds picked up and about a minute after walking in the front door the down pour began. From the Racing Union Listserv shortly after I left work yesterday:

“Kevin apparently just left the office to bike somewhere, giddy with excitement at the publicity his soggy rap has inspired. More on that later, but for now, he’s riding into a terrible storm, and what the weather radar data on my 21 inch monitor tells me is sure death. Here at DOL, we’re pretty much sure he’s a goner. If the brick throwing kids north of U street don’t get him, the wind and lightning will. The feral cats will pick the carcass clean. It was good knowing him. We’re putting together an advertisement for a new person to replace him. if you all know anyone who rides bikes and is also good with numbers and shit, drop me a line.

-sg”

And later:

“Right on. Just don’t go out in the squall tonight.
We have already lost Kevin and Bryan.
Don’t give the storm what it hungers for.”