p1030242sm.JPGon the days when i don’t ride my bike into work, i usually throw it on top of my car and hope for a lunch ride or an early release. this hardly ever happens and i think i just end up posing instead. telling the local world that i am “into” cycling… so i am better than you. my car has almost become an icon around here, like those big plastic bugs mounted on the top of an exterminator van. i always start to feel pretty lame if i ever do this more than two days in a row. i don’t think anyone really notices, but i don’t want to give them the chance. … “hey, it’s the black-car-white-bike guy!”

it was kind of a low key day at work so i snuck out about 5. everyone but two guys were left. i guess the sense of urgency and dedication drop off after the bosses leave. i headed out to my favorite trail, and got there within a half hour. the lot was kind of sparse so i parked next to a forrunner for some privacy. after all i had to get into my cycling clothes. parking-lot-changing is kind of a lost art. some people are so subtle you hardly know they even changed. others are so obvious that it usually creates a scene and everyone knows to look away. some people fall somewhere in between. this is the most dangerous style of the two styles. this is where you start the change very discreetly, perhaps a little too discreetly, and no one knows you are changing and turns the corner and ….”hello”.

yesterday i was trying to like the the former group. i tried not to bring any attention to myself and organized all my stuff, ready for the pants-shorts swap. just as i unbuckle, the owner of the forrunner arrives. turns out it’s a young twenty something female. i think it’s rather inappropriate to be showing my business in this setting, and she wasn’t here for the “pre-show-warning” where i got into my car wearing my engineering clothes and carrying my cycling cloths in my hand. i was going to get out and do it all over again, but my pants were already pretty unbuckled and i couldn’t even take care of that without witnesses. besides, i couldn’t keep track of her. she kept appearing out of no where from the back of her vehicle to the side.

i was just waiting for someone to come over to me and ask if i had tire pump they could borrow, or trail info or something, and me sitting there like a pervert with my pants open. it was going to be getting dark soon and she was in no apparent hurry to take off. finally when i thought she was out of sight, i just went for it. i was pretty fast, but hardly subtle. i was really rushing through it and of course the cycling shorts were not in the ready position, so i had to quickly turn them right side out, and put them on. not more than thirty seconds after i committed to the change, she started up her car , and almost peeled out of the lot like it was on fire or something. jeeze….was it something i did?

:)

i ran out of light pretty quickly and only got about 4 miles in.

p.s. i am way behind on my cycling post, i still have a bunch of rides with the new bike to write about. please aware that they may show up out of order.

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