I rode into work this morning for the first time in my life. It was a great experience and made for some fun talk at the office. I saved a couple gallons of gas, which as of this writing means about $7, and it feels good knowing that I'm doing my part to lower carbon dioxide emissions (learn more about the 10 mile pledge).

I’m a planner, and my motto is “Plan for the worst – Hope for the best”. It’s served me well, and here are the steps I took to make sure my maiden voyage was successful:

1. Road conditions and route – look for wide shoulders with bike lanes and no debris. Look for the fewest traffic lights as possible, and avoid having to cut across busy roads to make a left turn. I planned ahead by driving a few different routes to work in my car in search of the best route. It really paid off. A couple routes were as long as 15 miles, whereas the route I ended up choosing was a more direct 10 miles.

   I also recently put on a pair of GatorSkins from Performance, which gives me Kevlar protection from gravel and glass on the road. The last thing I want is to be stuck on the side of the road changing a tire when I need to be getting to work!

2. Adequate time – 10 miles of riding in traffic took about an hour, since I had to stop at traffic lights along with the cars. It seemed like I hit almost every single red light, and it's mostly uphill on the way to work. I'm hoping for a faster trip home since it'll be downhill - and hopefully I'll get some green lights!

   

3. Bike Storage at the Office - Fortunately I work in an office where there's plenty of places to lean my bike up against a wall, but if you work in Cubicle Land then you'll need to scope out a place to store your bike during the day. Many companies have bike racks located outside, but I'm not sure that I'd feel comfortable leaving my $2000 bike outside where accessories could be stolen.

I had my cholestrol checked about a year ago and it came in at 210, which is a little on the high side for a guy like me who is one year away from the big 40. My weight was up at 196, which is also on the high side for my 5 foot 9 inch frame.

I had a full physical last week and the bloodwork results just came back - cholestrol is only 175 and weight is down to 182 (only 7 lbs from my target weight)! Man am I pumped!

My doctor attributed the improvements to my active life style as a roadie and said I'm in really great shape overall.

It's exciting for me to find an athletic hobby that I really love doing, and that also will keep me in great shape.

Since I started riding in October of 2006, I've ridden at least twice a week and usually 30 miles or more per ride. I've only had two flats, no accidents, no falls, and only one close call with another rider.

I realized this week that I've grown overconfident and complacent when it comes to being careful and cautious. Riding is an adrenaline rush and a half when you're blazing down a hill at 40+ miles per hour, but things can turn sour in a flash - as I discovered this week.

I made two rookie mistakes that could have killed me and/or the rider in front of me.

1. Following the rider in front of me too closely up a hill.
2. Looking down at my chain to see what gear I was in (while following too closely up a hill).

As I started to look up, I saw the rear tire of the rider in front of me cross the path of my front tire. I instinctively grabbed for my brakes while swerving to the left to avoid running into him - which put me right in front of a large truck that was just starting to pass us.

It all happened so fast and I still don't know how that truck swerved to the left in time to avoid running me down, but I'm glad the driver was paying attention.

There was no need to follow so closely up a hill - we weren't going fast enough for me to get any benefit from drafting. Truth be told, I just wasn't paying attention (overconfidence and complacency).

Beginner's luck has run out for me, and I'll need to be alert and cautious on future rides to avoid making any more potentially lethal rookie mistakes.

I wasn't able to make yesterday's ride with my usual group of riding buddies, because I had a breakfast date with my daughter that morning. It turned out to be a timely breakfast because I found out afterwards that two riders went down after crossing wet railroad tracks. After hearing the details of the crash, I am certain that I would have upped the count to three riders down.

The weather was more drizzly than rainy, but it only takes a little moisture to cause a wheel to slide - especially when traversing over railroad tracks. In this case, it was also the road crossing grates on either sides of the tracks that were extremely slick.

Frank was leading, and his back tire slid out about a foot. He was able to recover, but Dave must have hit the tracks at more of an angle and his rear tire slid out too far to control. As he went down, Jim was right behind him and ran over his rear tire. They both went down.

Fortunately no bodies were injured. Dave's rear tire was bent, but he was able to ride on it for the remaining 5 mile trip home.

I'm certain I would have bumped the rider down count to 3 because I normally follow either Dave or Jim as closely as I can in order to draft as much as possible. I most likely would have run over both of them and then proceeded to fall just like they did.

Instead, I enjoyed a salmon hash breakfast while my daughter chowed down a piece of cinnamon role french toast. And I was able to get out this morning for a 30 mile ride by myself, with no crashes, no flats, no rain... just some bright sunshine and light traffic.

It's Wednesday, and I've been on my bike every day since Sunday... even if only for 45 minutes on the trainer the last couple of nights in a row. I'll take a break tonight, and then hit it again on Thursday and Friday night. Then I'll take a break on Saturday and look forward to a long ride on Sunday morning.

My wife noticed last night that my love handles are starting to melt away too! (that was SO nice to hear)

It literally snowed this morning, so I'm glad I have the trainer and can stay in shape despite the crappy weather. I also work on the 9th floor of my building, so I've been going up and down the stairs once in the morning and again in the afternoon... sure beats sitting motionless in front of my computer.