So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this but as I wait for my laundry to finish I suppose I should catch up. Training has been going fairly well these past few weeks. For the most part, I’ve been staying on track with my workout plan, yes, I have been missing a day or two here and there but overall, my fitness is still climbing and I’m adequately rested. On Monday I went snow camping with a friend of mine for three days around Sahalie falls, surprisingly I got a good workout hiking around for that time so I didn’t lose much fitness there. It was a lot of hard work hiking through the snow, and now my calves and hamstrings are tight, so I’ve been stretching them out frequently. Saturday (today) I am going to head up to Portland to see Tyler Farrar which I’m super excited about, I’m also going to make it to a Team O ride which is way overdue. Tuesday the 22nd, I’m having surgery, getting my two front teeth implanted (yay!), this should be fun. I’m anticipating it will put me a week off the bike which shouldn’t take me too far off track but we’ll see. I’m hoping to get back on the bike the 27th or 28th for a few days before the new year.
Now that you’re officially caught up with what’s been happening in my world of training/life I am now going to tell you about my experience riding today. I’m fighting off the beginnings of a cold so I decided to take it easy today although I was doing some hills, I headed out for three hours and after about an hour and fifteen minutes I started to feel pretty crappy to I decided to call it a day. I was soft pedaling down the road, more than ready to be back in my warm bed with a hot cup of tea and lemon but first I had to climb over 30th street, down the backside and 1.25 miles down the bike path to my apartment. I proceed to climb (very slowly) 30th street hill, reach the summit and begin my descent. I am now going to try to paint a mental picture of the back side of this hill in case you are not familiar with it. The hill itself is very steep and from the top to about one quarter of the way down there is no bike lane. This section of road is very curvy and potentially dangerous for those of us on bikes, after about 500 meters of road the bike lane begins and continues on down the rest of the street. This road is a common road to find cyclists on and what happens is, we take the entire lane on the downhill for about 500m until the bike lane begins, then we scoot over and remain in our own lane. So, I begin my descent of 30th street hill when this older woman in a blue prius decides to pass me on the corner, she doesn’t do it quickly, no, she uses the front of her car to slowly push me toward the curb as she pulls directly in front of me and then applies her breaks because shes going too fast on the corner. I came within inches of her car and the curb at 35mph. I begin to yell and shake my fist at her as we proceed down the hill, I get into my big ring and sprint alongside her car as she completely ignores me. Luckily she is caught at a red light when I approach right up next to her and explain to her (inbetween exasperated breaths) that what she did was unacceptable and how dangerous that was, I also explained to her the apparent fact that she is in a steel box while I am on my bike. She closes her window in the middle of my explanation and drives off. I proceed toward the sidewalk where I pull out my cell phone and call 911, give her license plate number to the dispatch woman (who was extremely nice and wanted to make sure I was absolutely ok) and filed a report for reckless driving against the woman. Needless to say that signified the end of my ride as I was and still am really shaken up. It truly amazes me that some people can be so inconsiderate and ignorant of others on the road, especially cyclists. I am always a considerate cyclist, I stop at all stop signs and lights, always wear my helmet and have lights on the front and back, I signal which direction I’m going and make it very aware that I am on the road too. On top of all that, it’s christmas time, people are supposed to be nice to each other, I just don’t get it. This is definitely not the first encounter I’ve had with a motorist, every time it baffles me at how….moronic…. people are. I hope an officer payed her a visit and suggested she re-reads her drivers manual. Until next time.
Cheers.
