Bike Sandwich...Going Nowhere (Increasingly) Fast

Can anyone else see the irony here?  I just rode my real bike to and from the YMCA, where I pay for the privilege of riding a stationary bike in a hot room full of sweaty strangers. And oddly enough, I actually plan to do it again.

I considered myself fully warned before going to my first "spinning" class at the Y this morning. Far from my original assessment of the idea as "silly," I had developed a healthy level of fear and intimidation regarding this stationary bike workout genre.  Some of the fittest people  I know have described spin classes as "kicking my butt."  Hearing just such an opinion--especially from a coworker who does bootcamp classes regularly and can run faster miles with a lingering cold than I ever have in full health--led me to this morning's workout with a mix of curiousity and dread.

As it turns out this choreographed session was a very effective--if utterly miserable--workout! Essentially you sit in room on a stationary bike and pedal along to music at the specifications of the instructor. 

After a deceptively easy warmup session I soon was introduced to the "buttkicking" parts of the spin class.  The toughest involve increasing your bike's resistance or "gearing up"  on cue for intervals like you're biking on hills, sometimes standing up in the saddle (making pedaling more like a session on the Stairmaster).  These are interspersed with "sprint" sections where you pedal fast as you can at lower resistance. Overall, the spin class resembles my slow, largely flat bike commute about as much as buffalo wings resemble actual buffalo. It also involves two things that rarely enter into my normal commuter bike experience--sweating heavily and feeling "saddlesore" from the unfamiliar bike seat.

But despite my constant panting and moaning, my sweaty desperation and temptation to quit, and my tortured clockwatching and as the minutes ticked by...at the end I had to admit that it was one heck of a workout.  I definitely got more hard cardiovascular exercise in those 45 minutes than with anything else I could fit into that timeslot other than running.  And my various leg muscles will surely thank me eventually--at least after they get over the initial shock of this unfamiliar activity.

After I showered and got ready for work, I got back on my real bike and headed out into traffic.  As I pedaled along the flat bike lane of Ruffin Road I realized--if I make this "bike sandwich" part of my regular workout routine I might finally make some headway towards my weight loss goals.  And if spinning has the effects I've been hearing about, I might even get my embarrassingly slow outdoor biking performances  to speed up a little!

Can't Beat The System--When Cowardice Is The Best Policy

I was feeling pretty clever as I biked to the Morena/Linda Vista trolley station early Friday morning. While I had expected to wake up to nonstop rain from an incoming storm system, at 4 am it was barely even cloudy with no trace of rain. When I boarded the 928 bus at Fashion Valley it was still dry, and once I got to the office complex and dropped off my bike in a locker I had time for a 4-mile run in intermittent sunlight. I knew I had only beaten the rain temporarily--the delayed weather system was due to show up around noon--but I could handle some rain on the way home. I had all my rain gear: clear vinyl jacket, nylon rainpants, neoprene lobstering gloves...and even a pair of barely-worn rain boots in my desk drawer.

My assertion was defeated by the fact that the storm system rolling in that afternoon was not just "some rain." It was in fact a ton of nearly horizontal rain, driven at times by 30 mile per hour winds and occasionally pierced with lightning strikes.

While the wind this time of year is more unpleasant than dangerous, the combination of heavy rain and wind was likely to make visibility to cars more of a problem than usual. And the unusual addition of lightning to the mix added a level of uncertainty--did I really want to take the chance of riding through a flat and treeless river valley during a thunderstorm?

I went back and forth on my decision as the weather shifted throughout the afternoon, at times thinking I might find a sufficient "hole" to "make a run for it" and bike to the trolley station--but eventually cowardice won out. I left the bike locked in its locker, put on my jacket, boots and a layer of warm scarves and got a ride with one of my coworkers. I then spent my extra time at the Qualcomm station trying to get visual evidence validating my decision. Unfortunately the raindrops are hard to photograph using a basic camera phone, so this was the best I could do:

I also didn't have enough "zoom" power to get a good view of the ominous storm clouds gathering over the mountains. And when Jesse picked me up for a ride home from the Morena/Linda Vista station, I was unable to get a single photo of the deep standing water on the streets of Ocean Beach. So I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for it that conditions were somewhere beyond merely unpleasant and approaching actual danger...in the case of this storm system, I will unabashedly stand behind my cowardice!

Shift Change? Same Location, Different Cops

Last week I wrote about the mystery of the large predawn San Diego Police Department assembly in the lower parking lot of the Morena/Linda Vista trolley station. I saw the same lineup of cars yesterday morning, and am still no closer to an explanation of their presence. From Google searches to questions on the San Diego Bike Commuter forum, nothing has produced any additional information.

As it turns out, that was NOT the largest police group I would see this week--not even the largest in a trolley station. Not even in THAT particular trolley station!

I boarded the trolley at Qualcomm Stadium after work yesterday--a normal afternoon without any Padres games or other events to increase traffic or change schedules--and immediately immersed myself in a back-and-forth texting conversation with a new potential dog groomer. As I reviewed prices and schedules, the stops went by in a hurry.

Suddenly I looked up and realized we were approaching the Morena/Linda Vista station. After tucking away my phone and putting on my glasses I looked up again as the trolley came to a stop--and got a panoramic vista of wall-to-wall cops. Transit Police, to be specific. Where normally you see a pair or trio boarding one car of a trolley to check passes, this time there was a solid mass of them on the platform at every door, with a few boarding each car of the train.

I exited my car and immediately had to show my pass to one of the officers remaining outside on the platform. As I wheeled my bike up an exit ramp about half the officers left on the trolley, and others spread out doing secondary checks or interrogations of the presumably ticketless passengers they had pulled off. Those remaining under the transit shelter with their drug-sniffing dog were STILL the largest group I had seen on the transit system aside from special civic-event occasions.



But the nature of THIS occasion--call it "The Hump Day Commuter Sweep"-- is now yet ANOTHER mystery for me. Any tips are very welcome!

Jump on a Bus...But Not to Conclusions

Neither my commute nor my exercise routine went as planned this morning. Thanks to a late start and an uncooperative dog, by the time I got to the Mission Valley YMCA with my swimsuit on under my workout/riding clothes, all the lanes of the indoor pool were full. So instead of taking an hour of swimming laps and getting on the 5:54 928 bus with about half a dozen "regulars," I settled for a short workout and arrived at Fashion Valley to jump on an empty 5:24 928.

The driver sounded a little impatient as I searched my bag after racking my bike, and asked if I was ready to go. I sat in a mid-rear seat, opened the Blogger app on my phone and studied a store flyer until I was interrupted by the driver soon after we left Friars Road. He asked how far I was going and I answered "Stonecrest," unsure why this should make any difference to him. Was he going to kick me off early? Did he not feel like going up the hill today? Isn't the route the same whether there's one person on the bus or 20?

THEN the driver asked if I had taken this route before, and I answered "a million times," unsure whether I was being accused of some kind of bus protocol violation. On patience-shredding mornings like this, my motto sometimes seems to be "I may ride a Diamondback but I can sure get Huffy." I could feel the temptation to assume I was being offended in some way. Luckily I resisted.

"Do I make a left here?" the young driver asked. I said I hadn't been paying attention and came up to the front. He explained that he was a lastminute substitute driving the route for his first time, and had nothing but a scribbled set of directions to navigate by. As soon as I realized which corner we were approaching, I told him to make a right and then take the NEXT left. Soon he was back into the routine and headed up the Mission Center hill as I observed from the front seats.

The driver had lightened up considerably after getting past his early confusion, even more so upon making contact with dispatch to get live turn-by-turn dirrections (so that he didn't have to keep deciphering his notes while driving). He asked about biking up the Mission Center hill, which I said was something I would never do after my couple of experiences walking up it. A few more early morning regulars boarded the bus as we approached Kearny Mesa, and when we reached Stonecrest I wished him luck with the rest of his route. I was just glad to see I had been able to help make this young man's first day a little easier...instead of adding to the stress with a sharp-tongued response from jumping to all the wrong conclusions.

Morning Mobilization..The Troops Gather and the Mystery Begins

Police presence near the Morena/Linda Vista trolley station is certainly not an unfamiliar sight. The stop itself and its parking lots are an occasional gathering place for the homeless, and some camps in the woods across Friars Road seem to draw police attention at times.

But Monday I saw an unprecedented level of San Diego Police Department activity near the station. Actually I should say unprecedented level of occupation...because while they filled the station's outer lot there seemed to be very little activity. 8 black-and-white cop cars sat parked in the lot facing outward, most occupied. A few stood around leaning on their cars, and at least one had a laptop computer out on the hood. Nobody looked like they were expecting to move anytime soon.

Such a heavy concentration of police made me wonder what was going on. I could see a couple patrols meeting up in an empty lot midshift to take breaks and compare notes, but 8 cars seemed excessive...especially with their station right around the corner on Gaines Street. And while none of the officers or cars appeared about to move, they were certainly in position to deploy or depart as needed.

I wondered about this new mystery as I rode by, vowing to do a Google search of local news to see if there's some sort of task force or cleanup effort going on along the San Diego River and in the nearby woods. But a busy Monday workload tossed such thoughts out of my mind entirely. I didn't think of the matter again...

...Until Tuesday morning when I saw the same lineup. 8 cars, all the officers appearing to be waiting around for something but not in an urgent manner. Even the laptop on the hood of one car again.

This time my curiosity survived the busy workday. I Googled on every break, trying to find any mention of police activity near the trolley station or Homeless Outreach Team action on the San Diego River, but turned up nothing. I decided that if the officers were around again on my Wednesday morning commute I would stop by and see if I could find out anything...after all, if the police are watching the area that starts just a few feet from my bike route, I probably have the right to know why.

But on Wednesday morning, I rode past an empty lot. Was it because their sweep or stakeout ended? Was it because I rode much earlier this morning and missed their pre-dawn mobilization? Unless I get better sources of San Diego Police Department information, looks like it will remain a mystery.

Pot Calling the Kettle Block....Bike Lane Irony

Nice fresh bike lane border stripes, like those recently painted on Murphy Canyon Road, are great for visibility.  Unfortunately they aren't enough to keep some traffic miscreants out of the bike lanes.

Almost every day I see at least one compact car using a bike lane as their "personal right turn lane" to squeeze ahead of thru traffic.  And every so often I see a motorcyclist pass using the bike lane or a car stopped to take a phone call or make some sort of roadside adjustments.   It's the sort of thing I'd like to complain to the cops about.

Unfortunately when I came up behind a stationary motorcycle taking up the entire bike lane on my way home this afternoon, calling the cops definitely wasn't an option...these WERE the cops.  The motorcycle blocking the way ahead, as well as one coming up behind me to join him, were both highway patrol officers!

Qualcomm Surprise...My Favorite Kind of Cars

It's difficult to predict what sort of events I might cross paths with when biking to the Qualcomm Stadium trolley station on a Saturday.  

Especially outside the bounds of football season, the possibilities seem nearly endless.  Aside from the common "Giant Used Car Tent Sales" that seem to occur almost every other week, I have run across everything from a Boy Scout jamboree to an antique auto supplier swap meet to a religious festival. 

This Saturday, when I rode by this sparsely populated corner of the stadium parking lot, I couldn't quite figure out the event in progress.  The path of orange cones indicated a possible race or driving agility course, and the food truck indicated lunch.  But I could immediately see that I was in the
presence of my favorite kind of cars...

...No, not Porsches, though there were some pretty cool-looking models at what I later discovered was some sort of local Porsche club race.  I mean my favorite type of car from my bike-commuter perspective... in other words, the stationary type that is separated from me by major barriers!