Watch Out, Wildlife

The forecast called for rain. Rain, rain, tons of rain. But when I woke up, it was sunny... and cloudless... and only 80 degrees. So my bike and I went for a ride.

I was very excited about this ride because the stuff I bought with my birthday Amazon.com gift card arrived while I was out of town. I couldn't wait to try out my new cyclocomputer:


For those of you who don't know much about bikes, it works when this little magnet attached to my wheel spoke...


... Swings around and goes past this sensor:



Oh... and even though I really didn't need it, I wore my new watch too:

(Due to my arm glowing with sweat, this photo was obviously taken AFTER my workout.)

Even though I remembered all these new-fangled gadgets, I totally forgot one important one... my Ipod. I was pretty much okay with that, except for I had that Coldplay song stuck in my head the ENTIRE ride.

"I used to rule the world, Seas would rise when I gave the word"

The main thing I learned during my ride was that I'm going much faster than I thought. During the times I was going at my normal speed, I was anywhere between 12 and 16 mph. That's good. My calculations in the past have been based solely on math using my time and distance. But that's usually not all that accurate.

Here are my final stats for this afternoon...
Distance: 12.749 miles
Maxiumum Speed: 22.2 mph
Average Speed: 12.1 mph
Temperature: 91.3 degrees
Time: 1:03:11
Calories Burned: 450.4 calories
Fat Burned: 48.9 grams of fat

The "Time" option is nice because it automatically stops counting when you stop your bike. So it's not ticking away while I'm drinking water or tying my shoe.

The reason the "Average Speed" is so low (compared to what I said about the 12-15 mph before) is because of pedestrian traffic for the first and last 2 miles of my ride. Also, about 8 miles in, there was a hill so steep that it has signs telling you to walk your bike up it.

"Now in the morning I sleep alone, Sweep the streets I used to own"

There was one moment during my ride where there wasn't another biker or pedestrain around and a straight flat bike path ahead of me. I decided to try and see just how fast my bike would go on flat ground.

So I tucked my head down and started pedalling as fast as I could. My new gadget told me I was nearing 21 mph, then suddenly...

GAH! SNAKE! SWERVE!

Here's how it all went down: I took a moment to peak up from under my helmet, and that's when I caught a glimpse of it slithering across the path as fast as it could go. Unfortunately for the snake, I too was going as fast as I could go. When I saw it, I screamed and tried to swerve to the left so I wouldn't hit it.

About 50 meters later, I slowed too a halt. I was scared to go see if I had indeed squished the suicidal snake. I slowly retraced my steps. From the distance, I could see it laying there in the middle of the path... not moving. I wasn't sure if it was alive or dead. If it was dead, then I would feel really bad. And if it was alive, than I at least wanted a picture of it (it's not often that I run into snakes during my ride (pun intended)).

"I used to roll the dice, Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes"

It's little head was curled around in a spiral and its tail stretched straight across the middle of the path. If I had hit it, I had hit its tail. Maybe I only squished part of him... or maybe he was totally paralyzed.

But as soon as I got close, he felt me coming and quickly slithered off into the tall grasses. No dead snake... and no picture.

"Never an honest word, But that was when I ruled the world"

____________________________________

My bike needs a name. We're coming up on our 1 month anniversary, and I want to give her the gift of a name.

Problem is, I'm stuck. I'm usually a naming-pro. Everything I own has a name (my car = Madison, my houseplant = Stu II, my Ipod = Casey). So my new love deserves a name also. She is definitely a girl, and I try to stick to human names.

I may think up a few options and then start a poll. I'll get back to you on that one...