Friday, July 20

I almost didn't ride today. I am going up to New Hampshire with my uncle this evening (the same one who picked me up in the rain yesterday) and it would have been slightly easier to not have a bike with. However, when push came to shove, I had not sent my helmet along with him, and the prospect of a long and costly ($4) express bus and Red Line commute was disheartening, to I took to the streets.

And boy was I glad. I threaded the needle at Commonwealth and Washington (what I mean is, while the Commonwealth left turn lanes were turning, I went between the two diagonally across the intersection) and then sped, traffic-free through West Newton's runnable lights. From there, my next slow-down was past Watertown Square, and I was going gangbusters: 5 minutes to Albemarle, 8 minutes through the lake, 11 minutes through Watertown. It was shaping up to be an epic ride.

I did hit a couple lights requiring a slowdown, but was generally able to speed through to Aberdeen before I had to come to my first (and only) full and complete stop at Fresh Pond Parkway. After that, it was a rather uneventful (except for a guy who took a left and plugged up the intersection at Walden and Sherman) to Raymond, where I went left and through the tunnel, having to pass a group of kids necessitating a slow down, before I hammered under the tracks at over 20 mph, which was interesting on the undulating surface going up. After that it was an easy ride across Mass Ave and then up Hollis, which had no traffic thanks to the construction blocking it in Davis. Simple and easy. And fast.

Very fast. I thought the 28:03 ride was about as fast as possible, but today I made it in 27:03, 8.13 miles, 18.0 mph. I'll need a new bike (perhaps a fixed gear) to drop some weight and go much faster. I guess the next goal is to break 27:00. Although we might be moving offices next week. Ah, the life of the start-up.