This morning, I rode in Hub on Wheels, Boston's annual bike ride and fund raiser to support technology in schools, with 99catsaway and my roommate Brian. We opted for the 30 mile route (there were also 10 and 50 mile options) and it was awesome.

The incredible route started at Government Center, took us west on Storrow Drive (closed to other traffic), back east to the Charlesgate overpass, down through the Fens, the Riverway, Olmstead Park and Jamaica Pond, the Arnold Arboretum, Forest Hills Cemetery, Franklin Park, through Dorchester to Morrissey Blvd, around Columbia Point (UMass Boston, JFK Library, Bayside Expo Center), up along the beaches of Southie, through the Seaport District, along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, then up State Street back to Government Center. It really was a beautiful tour of the city, with gorgeous weather the whole time.

Rose has ridden in organized rides before (much longer, too. See: RAGBRAI), but neither Brian nor I had ever done something like this before. I don't think either of us had ever gone 30 continuous miles before!

According to my GPS, it was actually 32.2:



As you can see, we averaged about 11 miles per hour, and took about three and a half hours to complete the ride, including some rest stops.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but it really was a beautiful sight to see so many bicycles all over the place. Other people got pictures and put them on Flickr, though... so here's a slide show of search results for photos taken today, tagged "Hub on Wheels:"



Anyway, after all that riding, I'm pretty pooped -- so we're off to dinner, then I'll probably be asleep nice and early tonight!

I just had to pass along Boston Biker's "Back to School Guide." Informative and quite funny -- probably worth a read even if you don't plan to bike in Boston anytime soon.

One of my favorite parts is about car drivers yelling and honking at cyclists:

If you are following the rules of the road then you can safely interpret this screaming and the honking to mean “hey buddy good to see you utilizing this fine road way with me, have a good day, and be safe!” I suggest you wave and smile back.

Okay, I realize that lots of people do this all the time... but it was the first regular weekday that I rode my bike to get to work in the morning, and it's kind of a big deal for me!

I had very nice ride, too... I had signed up for Bike Friday, figuring that even though they go to a different part of town than I work in, it's early enough that I can just continue to work afterward. I was up late last night, and didn't sleep terribly well, so this morning I decided to skip out on the organized ride... again (my apologies the Mayor and to Dan Hoagland who worked very hard to coordinate the event).

The route I took seemed to be a pretty reasonable compromise between direct and low-traffic:



I know my way around, but brought the GPS so I could keep track of my speed and distance:



I definitely need to find an alternative to my backpack. I could have gotten away with stepping right off the bike and into meetings if not for the fact that the straps made my shoulders sweat through my shirt. The rest of me was pretty much ready to start my day, though. I just washed up in the restroom and changed shirts... but on hotter or rainy days, I'll need additional freshening up. Fortunately, we have a shower at the office, and my gym is just across the street, so there's plenty of opportunity to do so.

Overall, it was a successful commute, and took about as much time as driving would, given that I cut out a lot of driving around the block to get to my parking spot. I can't wait to do it more often!

I just found out that I have my Air National Guard fitness assessment next weekend! I usually do okay on them, but I've been SO bad about running lately that I'm afraid I won't do very well at all.

Here's how the scoring breaks down:

There are 100 possible points. Up to 50 on the 1.5 mile run, Up to 30 on body composition (BMI or abdominal circumference), and 20 from muscular strength (10 each from push-ups and crunches).

Fortunately, even though my tummy isn't all that slim, my BMI is just within the "normal weight" range, so I will automatically get the max 30 points for body composition.

Last year, I did 38 push-ups in 1 minute for 8.25 points (the scores are adjusted for age and gender), and 33 crunches in 1 minute for 7.3 points. Let's assume I come close to those this year and get 15 points total.

That gives me 45 points before the run. I'll need 30 points on the run to get a passing overall score (75 or greater). Here's an excerpt from the run time score chart:

 

Run Time (mm:ss)	Component Points
13:37 - 14:24	34.00
14:25 - 14:54	32.00
14:55 - 15:18	30.00
15:19 - 15:48	27.00

 

So, I need to run 1.5 miles in under 15:18. In theory, that shouldn't be too hard. I've run 5k (3.1 mi) road races in under 30 minutes... but I'm really out of practice!

I just went for a practice run this morning... I was planning to go exactly 1.5 miles, but made a wrong turn. I stopped at a point that I later measured out at around 1.6 miles... and it took me 15:39. Hopefully, the fact that it's the "real deal" will speed me up a bit next weekend, but it looks like I've got some speeding-up to do!

In other fitness (sorta) related news, I am loving my bike. I try to take it out for a spin as often as I can, although I still haven't used it to get to/from work. This morning, after my run, I went for a ride around the neighborhood and along both banks of the river. It was wonderful!

So, I keep saying that one of these weekdays, I'm going to ride my bike to work. The weather was good for it yesterday, but I sorta chickened out/got lazy and didn't do it. The weather today was pretty lousy, and it looks like tomorrow's forecast is for rain, too (I'm not usually one to check weather reports, but I might need to start doing so). Anyway... one of these days!

On a completely unrelated note, I need to figure out what classes to take this fall semester. I am at a fork in the road of my life, here... I need to decide between two different routes:

• Fast-Track to Done: I could satisfy all of my requirements and get my degree pretty quickly. At this point, I need two courses in my discipline (Natural Sciences), two writing intensive, and two expository writing. There are exactly two courses in the catalog that are both science AND writing intensive. I could take them both this fall, then an expository writing in the spring, do the paperwork, and finally be a college graduate.


• Almost-as-Fast, Done Better: To give my transcript a bit more marketability, I have the option to narrow my concentration to Biology, instead of just Natural Sciences. To do that, I would need ONE additional biology course beyond than the fast-track plan above. So, take the two writing intensive sciences this fall, then an expository writing and any bio in the spring. Do the paperwork, and finally be a college graduate.


• Not-so-Fast, But Maybe Much Better: If at some point I want to apply for graduate school of any kind, I will probably need to have pre-requisites like all of the basic sciences. Since I last took those basic sciences over a decade ago, I would need to retake them. I can't really take ALL of them in one year since they're much more time intensive than the courses I'm looking at now, but I could possibly spread them out over two years, with the fast-track classes above mixed in. The whole thing would take me another four semesters instead of two, and would be a LOT more work. They would all be classes I've had before, and done well in, but that was as an 18-20 year old full-time student.


Ugh... I've got some thinkin' to do!

I think I briefly mentioned in my post a few weeks ago that I was borrowing my roommate Brian's bike. Now that he's home from his trip to Mississippi, I went ahead and got one of my own. It's a "Dew" by Kona. It's a pretty basic low-end hybrid, that is, not quite a road bike, but not quite a mountain bike either. I had been shopping around like crazy, and tested out so many different bikes I was starting to get dizzy... but this one just seemed like the right geometry, weight, tires, and price point for me. Here's a stock picture from the manufacturer:



Anyway, I love having a bike. I've been riding around as much as I can. Today, Rose and I biked over to Mt. Auburn Cemetery, which was absolutely beautiful. I recommend that anyone who lives in (or is visiting) the Boston area check it out.

We weren't really searching for famous people, but we did see the graves of Peter Bent Brigham (namesake of the hospital I work at, in part, at least) and of George Thorndike Angell (founder of the MSPCA, and namesake of of the Angell Animal Medical Centers). We also saw the grave of one John Brown, who I thought might have been the famous abolitionist and (late) main character of "John Brown's Body", but it turns out that was a different John Brown.

By the way, the song "John Brown's Body" later evolved into "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and I urge you to listen to one of my all time favorite episodes (Lost in America) of This American Life to hear Sarah Vowell tell the wonderful tale!

Anyway, in addition to admiring the cemetery from ground level, we climbed the spiral staircase to the top of Washington Tower to see an amazing panoramic view of the entire area. We could see from the Zakim Bridge to the spire of the LDS Church in Belmont.

Here's the Sanoodi route for our ride today:



After heading back to my place for some bagels and TV time, Rose rode back to her place, and I decided to try biking to the office, since I had some work to catch up on. I'm proud to say that this afternoon, I bike-commuted to work for the first time ever!.

I'm so exicited -- I can't wait to try biking to work one day this week!