Cycling update May 2008
Time to bring you up to speed with my latest cycling adventures since riding Chilly Hilly in late February 2008. Basically it has been a very very wet end to winter and splash into spring. No signs yet of global warming here in the Pacific NW. Thank goodness too for spinning classes, which I have been able to attend 2-3 times/week. Basically, if it is dry and above 45 degrees F, I hope to be out on my bike; especially now that I am finished at the University of Washington medical school until next January.
I have been able now to log a total of over 1100 miles on my Moots since I received it around August 2007, not too bad considering the weather, and that I hardly rode outside from October till late February. I am most often out on my own, cell phone in pocket, flashing tail light, helmet mirror - praying for no flat tires. Given the hilly nature of Bainbridge Island I am slowly adding post-SCI previously unconquered hills to my list of those I have now scaled. Not checking them off with quite the significance of Bainbridge resident Ed Viesturs, the first American to climb the 14 mountains in the world higher than 8,000 meters, but nonetheless rewarding, and too involving risk - not knowing if I may stall and topple in the midst of a climb. While I am gradually increasing the degree of difficulty, I think Toe Jam Hill with its 22 - 24 percent gradient is forever safe from my aspirations.
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