Chongoman had a good post in response to someone asking for commuter advice. his message was stay away from road rage at all costs, do not engage the drivers at all, be defensive and have fun.

it made me think about a situation yesterday – I got cutoff so a guy could turn into a Lowe’s right in front of me, instead of 2 seconds and letting me get by the entrance. And i thought for about as long as it took to go by the parking lot how easy it would be to watch him go in, then have at his SUV for a couple blows. No one would have caught me hauling out into an urban area on my bike. No one would hardly have even cared.

But nothing good would have come of that. I had not thought about it until just now, which was good. if i had pursued that, at the very least it would have eaten at me over and over for a few days. And me getting away clean with an ulcer is the best possible outcome – someone attacking me with their car, running me down, pushing me off the road etc etc etc are all more likely.

In the car, you can be a little agro and not really get into anything as long as you don’t get carried away. But on a bike, you are completely 100% naked and vulnerable. You might get a shot in and vanish, but you’re a target from then on. But the upside of commuting blows away anything in a car – other than tired, i usually am in a good mood when i’m done commuting.

Its too easy to let the general agro nature of a commute make you take offense at stuff that had no effect – getting cut off sucked, but I saw the whole thing play out and avoided it. Can’t say I won’t ever give someone the finger, but the reminder to avoid avoid avoid confrontation really can’t be heard too often.

i needed to hit it again. Worry over the potential loss due to the potential move, and desperation to get some kind of semblance of conditioning for the upcoming Crazy 88. I commuted to work twice this week, and spent an hour on the trainer, and rode G to the park like 3 times which i don’t even count in my riding log. twas an above-average week. Its all about power and spin right now, I’m warming up to the idea of wanting to do the whole race. It is going to be a sufferfest, but if I don’t WANT to finish there is no chance in hell i will. So i’m leaving myself open to the warming to the wanting it.

And decided to add in the climb up Las Sendas outbound and on the return. It would add 15-20 minutes and 2 decent hills. Took 4:15 total for 70 miles, with about 30 minutes idle time. I was going to meet up with singlespeedsycip (Mark) and some of his crew at the Dash In for the 42 miler. I hung out for about 10 minutes waiting at 5:45am, then headed up the rode figuring they’d run me down as a group working together in the flats. And they did, blew right by me and up the hill. Mark fortunately kept looping back for his buddy Simon, who was just a tad slower than me, and holy crap he made it look effortless. Markwas nursing rickety knees the first few times I rode with him, and its great to see him kicking ass now that he feels good. The company was nice too, and worth the time.

I got my first flat in about a year and a half just as we left from the top. The fix was uneventful but i knew right away it’d be 20 miles til i saw anyone again. It was cool. i got to dig deep, and the legs were not hurting anywhere nearly as badly as last week. My time wasn’t much better, which wasn’t really surprising, but i did feel stronger and mentally tougher the whole ride, even though everything is achey this afternoon. There were a couple good stretches of climbing where Mark pushed my pace. It might have been 5 minutes all-told, but it will pay off later. Eat the elephant one step at a time.

home, banana pancakes again, shopping again, cooking again – ribs and grilled veggies. i think i’ve finally mastered how to cook ribs – long and slow and low. Beckie and I ate an entire slab, and this gluttony can only partially be blamed on the ride; the rest was all my fabulous cooking. G has started to make a chomping noise for kicks when she eats. We chomped loudly on ribs. i pork products.

did Tortilla Flat on Sunday. omigawd i can’t believe its been so long since i’ve done this ride. omigawd i can’t believe its been so long since i’ve done this ride and i have not become a fat sack of crap. Its the best ride and best workout of all the road rides in the Valley. Oddly, this was only the 2nd time I’ve done the full 65 miles from the house and back instead of the 42 from Apache Junction and back. Its always seemed so long, and so remote, but when it takes 25 minutes to drive to the start and just 45 to ride there…well i’m just kicking myself i finally figured this out with so few months left on this part of town. Saguaro Lake has a lot of climbing in the same mileage, but its up and down and full of traffic. Tortilla is big s-curves up and down that flow into each other really well.

and its a big effort. I was hurting at the start, not realizing how much climbing there is going through Mesa and AJ, and my legs were out of roadie shape. The slow pace diden’t bother me since i left before dawn at 4:50 and spent the first 30 minutes in the pre-dawn, mentally and physically foggy. But it flowed off me surprisingly easily and it wasn’t til the final big climb out that I really started to hurt, and that was completely expected no matter in what condition I arrived at that point – that climb always hurts.

my log shows that I am more-or-less on the same pace for roadie hours as last year. Not as many 2 hr rides, but now I’m commuting some. The real difference is i have only done Tortilla about twice in the past 2 years. I rode a smart race at Tour de Scottsdale, but i am weak.

it was soupy at the beginning and all ride long, but the overcast that held the soup in kept the sun more-or-less out through the whole ride. I figured out how to carry 4 20oz bottles of gatorade, and even had some left at the end. I worked hard, but am way psyched that i was not crushed by this ride. I did the 42 miles from the VFW Post to the end-of-the-pavement and back in 2:28, only about 10 minutes off my best times. I had less than a 5 minute break at the top, under 4 hours door-to-door.

Animals seen:

• 1 dead rattlesnake
• 1 coyote
• 7 live rabbits
• 1 dead rabbit
• 1 turkey vulture, eating aforementioned rabbit
• about 14 dudes in a crotch-rocket Club, who scared me but not too bad on the stretch form the town to the top, and then i left at the top fanning themselves and smoking cigarettes

The traffic was not at all bad on the way out, other than the motos but they were mostly just noisy and were the only traffic after the lake. One the return, there was a lot of traffic going outbound, but as long as I kept my eyes out and didn’t catch them in any blind turns I felt very safe. Back home before 9, ready to cook some banana pancakes and do it again next weekend.