Things you notice on a bike ride.

I was out for a nice training ride today. And I came across this turtle sitting in the middle of the road. At first I thought it had expired, but when I picked it up, the head popped, out then in and out again. So I placed it at the side of the road, and then it moved quickly into the grass. I barely had time to get this pic before it was gone.

I am always amazed at the things I see when I am riding my bike.... Things you rarely see when I am zipping along in my car, removed from the outside world.

Just another day heading to work.....

Look at this view of the road!

 I really can't complain about my commute to work.  Especially when it's on a bicycle.  Sure it's a 17 mile trip each way with two really long hills (heads up Climate Riders, you will be taking on those hills on day 2).  It's kinda fun thinking that my commuting route will be the route that 200 cyclists venture along in three short weeks.  A prize for anyone who can find this spot!

But seriously, I like the challenge of cycling to work when my schedule permits it.  It does take me an hour and fifteen minutes, when my car takes me only 30 minutes.  But it's good exercise.  It's time to think and it's time to enjoy the scenery.  Of course, I  show up in my office needing to change clothes because I am all sweaty.  I have to give kudos to my students.  I have had a couple of them waiting to see me for me when I get into the office after a bike ride.  And even though I am sweaty and wearing my riding gear, they are fine to hold a conversation and or seek help on their lab reports whether I am in street clothes or bike clothes.  Would that all people had such a luxury at work........

Today was an especially fun commute.  Well, not fun, at first.  It was windy 20-30 mph gusts.  Pedaling hard just to go down hill.  Sheesh.  Good training, I kept telling myself.  But then when I got home, I swapped my road bike for the trail bike and it was off for a ride with the family on the canal towpath to Center Bridge for dinner and ice cream.  My daughter was pedaling hard against the wind just because she want to get to the treat at the end; and barely a complaint out of her.  She loves to be on her bike just like her dad.

What a wonderful day.....

Then at the end, as the sun was going down and the kids were going to bed, I needed to get in a car to run an errand to the large orange hardware store.  Given all the time I spent in the saddle today, sitting in a cushy cloth seat almost felt ........  well kinda weird.  Would that most trips in a car felt that way.....

It sustainability just pie in the sky?

Or is it pie in the eye?

I don't have the answer, but in order to raise donations for my ride I definitely took the latter.  Since my ride in 2009, my students have annually held a fundraising event, called Pie-a-professor, to raise money toward Climate Ride.  Yep, I will do anything to reach my fund raising goal.

 I have to thank Dr. Danielle Jacobs for standing by my side and taking several pies for the cause as well.  It was a little cold when we did this event last Tuesday.  Hence the reason we are bundled up.






As you can see, she took quite a few pies first.  There were quite a few students who had it in for her.  Perhaps her last exam in Organic Chemistry a little too hard???

 Well eventually, the students realized I was an easy target as well......

In the end it was pretty even.  And some of the students, like Paul Ghattas here, a graduating senior and president of Gamma Sigma Epsilon, the Chemistry Honor Society also took some pies for the cause.....

The event was fun, but I got enough pudding up my nose, that I will be smelling vanilla for at least a week!









All in the name of working towards a better future, right?  That's what I kept telling myself with each pie.....

Are we gonna be ready?

In less than a month I will be embarking on my 300 bike ride from NYC to DC - The Climate Ride.  And even though I have done this before, I still wonder, am I gonna be ready for this?  I certainly hope so.  I can't help but think that I have been psychologically getting myself ready.  60 miles a day is big step.  I have been in the saddle for seven of the last nine days, so I know I am ready to peddle.  But in those seven days I have only gone 145 miles; getting rides in where I can; commuting to work a couple of times.  But it's hard to find the time and energy to do everything.

But the way I see it, preparing for this ride is just like preparing for a sustainable future.  We can make all the plans we want to and we try to make incremental steps forward.  But with incremental steps forward, we can also take incremental steps backwards as well - and society does this all the time.  What we need to do is make an irreversible change forward to a sustainable energy future.  Those of you who have studied thermodynamics know what I mean by an irreversible process.

I will start my irreversible process on May 19th with the next Climate Ride.  Whether or not I am truly ready, it's still gonna happen.  Is our society going to be able to fashion for itself a sustainable future?  Whether or not we are ready for it, it's gonna have to happen.....

A little training help

I figured it would be good to start out this blog with a few notes about training for this ride.

In 2009, I did some incremental training for the ride from late February until the ride in mid September.  There were weeks when I couldn't train because of travel and work.  But it was a nice opportunity to ease into the notion of riding 300 miles in 5 days -- something I had never done before.

This time, there two different factors:  The ride is in May, which compressed my training schedule, and I knew what to expect from a 300 mile ride.  As to that training schedule, I can thank global warming for producing a very warm winter that allowed me to get out and ride in early January when I signed up.  But I still needed motivation.  Fortunately I had motivating help from my family.  The kids like to go biking with me.  Okay, my son really just likes to tag along -- one day he'll be able to to pedal too!!!




My daughter also likes to go riding along the canal path.

But to be fair, my wife deserves a lot of credit for getting me trained.  She organizes and leads the family bike rides along the canal.  And when I need to go for a long ride out on the road, she kicks me out of the house - even when I don't feel like heading out on my bike.


In any case, I need to recognize that while I am doing a lot of the pedaling, my family is also working hard to make sure that I am ready for this ride.  Which happens in less than a month.

Yikes!!

Before the 2009 Climate ride I had a number of trips over the summer that kept me from training every week.  This time, I also had trips in the middle of the semester.  But, this time I got a little smart (just a little).  While at an ACS meeting in San Diego, I took an afternoon off and rented a bike, which I then road from downtown up to the Point Loma light house for a cool view of downtown, Coronado Island and Tijuana, Mexico.  I highly recommend the visit to anyone traveling to San Diego.  And I do recommend the bike ride - even the steep hill to get up there.

I am back to do it again!

Well, it's been about two and half years since I rode in the 2009 Climate Ride. My life has moved forward (in small increments). The kids have grown a little bit older. I have grow a little bit wiser (a very little bit!). But the thing that is still apparent to me is that our society has really not made any new strides in addressing the issue of sustainability or the potential problems related to climate change. 

About the only evidence I see that we, as a nation, are moving forward is that I see more solar panels on roofs as I cycle around the countryside. We gotten a little bit better at recycling. But not much else. The problem is the economy. We have yet to make it truly economical to have a sustainable world. And the only way that happens is in one of two ways. Either we get smart and realize that this planet has a finite amount of resources available or we come close to using everything up and the price for resources becomes so prohibitive that we are forced to reduce, reuse and recycle because we cannot afford otherwise. Unfortunately the latter scenario will likely result social upheavals that will probably be unpleasant for a significant part of the population - and not just the lower classes.

 To do my part to try to help society find solutions to our sustainability problems, I am once again riding my bicycle for 300 miles to raise money for causes that raise the collective awareness of these issues. I start in NYC on May 19 and end in DC on the 23rd. I have been training for the Climate Ride (on and off) for the last two months, but now the rubber NEEDS to hit the road. I will document some of the trials and tribulations of my training and then keep everyone up to date on how the ride goes. The next couple of posts will have some pictures and stories of the last couple of weeks of training. But stay tuned there is certainly more to come!!