20 February, 2004

A bit nippy

I don't mean it was cold this morning, though there was a frost.  I mean that I cycled to work astonishingly quickly: 3.36 miles took 14 mins, which is 2-3 mins faster than usual over a distance 0.14 miles shorter than usual.  The distance is easily explained as taking an abnormally tighter line, but it was the absolute speed that was surprising.  I typically reach 27mph on one particular downhill section; I can't 'go for it' as it's also a curve, with a relatively major junction at the axis, so I need to take care.  However, for once I accelerated after the hill, holding 30mph for a few hundred metres.  Trivial for a car, of course, or even for a racing bike, but about as fast as I've ever done on this one (a hybrid mountain/road bike).  It wasn't an effort, either - I stayed above 25 mph for the next couple of hundred metres, too (usually 20mph, max; 12-15 in a headwind).

I'll have to try that again, when I'm not watching for ice on the road!

Incidentally, I forgot to make a note of it on the anniversary, but I've been riding with a bike computer for over a year, and the current total is 1970 miles (3283 km) since 1 Feb. 2003, the vast majority of which was just commuting to work.