WX WTF?

OK then, in my immediately prior post, I mentioned that I exhibit a bit of weather geekery. Unfortunately, because of a lack of mathematics and physics in my background, an understanding of actual atmospheric science is a bit beyond my depth. It was for perhaps this very reason that I became so frustrated in my last week of bike commuting.

My afternoon ride home is generally from the southeast to the northwest. A good monsoon flow is also from the southeast, so tailwinds are the order of the day. I enjoy the wind at my back, and I've even had a few crazy-fast rides home on the microburst winds washing from beneath thunderheads. I treasure these tailwinds because the prevaling winds in the spring and early summer are more or less westerly, and punching into them for months really wears me down.

Last Monday and Tuesday, I found myself sprinting away from the office, looking forward to some serious assistance from the storms forming up southeast of Tucson. I was also very interested in not getting caught in them. I ride in all sorts of weather but I draw the line at lighting and hailstones. And yet, there I was riding into a stiff northwest headwind the entire time. And mind you, one of these storms caused the 50+ mph winds that sent a mile-high wall of dust through Phoenix.

If someone could explain to me how there can be a strong, northwest wind at ground level when an entire sky full of clouds is moving rapidly in the exact oppsite direction, I would appreciate it. If I know the science, then I won't mind so much riding the drops, pounding my way into the wind.

The only adverse weather I encountered in this morning's mountain bike ride was the 60° dew point and 50% relative humidity. Fortunately, there was enough of a cloud cover to keep me out of direct sunlight, which is part of the trifecta that really cranks up the discomfort level. Nevertheless, I think I lost a couple of pounds during the ride. While it's nice to be at a weight I haven't been since college, I know I'll gain it back as I rehydrate throughout the day.

In any event, it was a good ride. I felt pretty strong, my still-newish hardtail handled perfectly, and I was rocking my freshly-installed bar ends all over the climbs. The rains Tucson has been getting have tackified the trails a bit. And not just the sand, but even coarse gravel surfaces seemed to have a bit more cohesion. Fun stuff, and no choking on dust.

The monsoon wildlife watching wasn't bad, either. Sparrows of the black-throated and rufous-winged species were all over, singing like crazy. Purple martins wheeled overhead, nabbing insects on the wing. I came across a flattened Sonoran Desert toad in the bike lane. I didn't see any millipedes, but I think they mainly get up and about on the mornings after rainstorms.

That's enough for now. As enjoyable as this all was, I think I'll spend the rest of the day indoors, near an AC vent.

Done

Yesterday - halfway through through 2011 - I managed to accomplish my entire year's worth of bike commuting goals. My standing target is to get in 100 rides and 1,000 miles, but neither are date-specific. At 8.8 miles per round trip, it usually takes me 114 rides to get in the miles. This year, after having taken some more climby routes to and from work for a few weeks, I saw a chance to hit the grand early and then, to hit it right at 100 trips. As I kept riding, I saw another chance to wrap it all up in just six months of riding. After that, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Trying to skew my average up from 8.8 to 10 miles per day took some creative route choices. I initially kept up with the climbing but as the heat built up, I pushed the extra miles into the flats along Silverbell and the newly-paved sections of the de Anza Trail by the Santa Cruz River. The hotter it became, the farther I rode, resulting in doing a 14-mile loop on the 103° afternoon of the summer solstice. It was the first bike commute during which I needed to stop to refill my water bottles. I ended up this past Wednesday with 99 rides and about 93 miles - right on schedule to finish June at the century mark.

At 3:00am on Thursday, I woke up to lightning and thunder and shortly afterwards, a steady rain began to fall. Ordinarily, I would have pumped my fist in the air, happy that our ever-more droughty desert was finally going to get wet. Instead, all I felt was my commuting goal slipping away. It wouldn't be the same if I drove to work and hit 100 rides next Tuesday (in July, no less). I decided I'd ride to work, even if I needed to wear a mask and snorkel and put water wings on my bicycle. As it turned out, the storms were fast-moving and by the time I put a set of fenders on my bike and rolled down the street, all I had to face were puddles.

At one point, another rider/commuter rode up and drafted me for a while. I've seen him before and I know he's much faster than I am. Eventually, he came up beside me, thanked me for allowing him to wheelsuck, and asked if he could take my picture. Sure. He dropped back and I saw a couple of flashes go off. Having just had my ass photographed by a stranger, I asked why. He told me he keeps a Facebook page based on his bicycling and commuting experiences.

I got the rider's name but didn't think to ask the page's name. Also, he dropped the camera just after taking the pix, so there may no longer be any unattributed photos of my rear view. Nevertheless, if anyone knows of a Tucson based Facebook page oriented towards bike commuters, please let me know in the comment section here. Oh, and Veelz, this doesn't mean that I'm on Facebook. I'm just too antisocial for social media.

As I reviewed my commuting numbers, a few other interesting pieces of data stood out. My coldest morning ride was 19° during the February deep freeze. My hottest ride happened this week, when it was 111° on one of my afternoon legs. The smallest temperature differential between my morning and afternoon rides was 5°, which means all I needed to change in terms of my kit between the rides to and from work was to go from clearies to sunglasses. The biggest temperature change was 43° (41° in the a.m. and 84° in the p.m.), which means I rode to work with a messenger bag full of summer gear and back home with it stuffed with winter kit. I'm a biologist but, as you can see, I geek out a little bit on meteorology.

But back to the mileage. Here I am with 1,000 miles of bike commuting under my belt. Unfortunately, as I've lamented here before, big weekday miles almost invariably come at the expense of weekend rides, and this year is no exception. I have clocked a whoping 100 miles of bicycling just for the fun of it - a 10:1 ratio between cycling for utility vs. riding for fun. On the other hand, having concluded the statistical obsession portion of my 2011 bike commuting, I'm free to dial it back and save my legs for the weekends. The impending summer monsoons will probably hold me back a bit, but I've got a couple of 29ers (the trail bike I got last spring and a geared hardtail I added to the quiver 3 weeks ago) that are begging to be ridden.

Bye now.