Sunday Ride through Houston's Energy Corridor

Houston is a suboptimal city for cycling. It sprawls and sprawls and sprawls, and the sprawl is not always connected with bike lanes or even roads with a clearly marked shoulder. It does have people that care about cycling, and try to create, grow, and maintain infrastructure for cyclists, but it's a work in progress. I learned a bit about the work in progress on Sunday when I rode through Houston's Energy Corridor.

The Energy Corridor is the area just west of the Sam Houston Tollway (Beltway 8) along Interstate 10. It's not just an area, it's a district with paying business members and leadership, and they market the hike and bike trails of the area on their website and with signs posted along the trails. Here's a photo of one I took during my ride.

What may not be immediately obvious is that many of the orange (bike lanes) and red (hike and bike trails) lines are not connected to other orange and red lines. In other words, you have to either park nearby to use them, or ride on a potentially bike unfriendly street to get to the bike lane or trail. When I left for the ride, I did exactly that -- I rode on the street, taking the lane and getting honked at by an impatient driver. A few miles later, I reached a bike lane on Briar Forest Drive, became a gutter bunny, and headed towards the Corridor.

After a turn on Kirkwood, I followed the bike lane to the Addicks Reservoir, which you can see near the bottom of the above photo. The trail around the reservoir was populated with dog walkers, and after a couple of miles the trail played out, and I was happy to leave it and its potential leash ensnarement.

Unfortunately, when I left the trail, I was on a street without a bike lane: Eldridge Parkway. The map said it had a hike and bike trail along the street, but I honestly think the wide sidewalk is to what the map was referencing. I refused to ride on the sidewalk, and took one of two lanes heading back south toward the bike lane offered by Briar Forest Drive. I was then honked at for the second time that day.

When I had looped back to Briar Forest, I headed west towards Barker Reservoir and George Bush Park. When I hit the park, I decided to crank up the speed a little and rode in the big ring at 20+ mph, taking care not to pass too closely to other trail users. I don't care much for riding on hike and bike trails, but...it was there. And I had my bike.

I decided to turn around at about 15 miles into the ride, and found a small park where I refilled my water bottle and watched kids at the skate park for a few minutes. The photo below shows the skate park, cyclists in the background, and what is surely the hottest, most uncomfortable picnic table in the world (if visited during a Houston August at midday).

After the turnaround, I rode back to the bike lane on Briar Forest Drive. I followed its bike lane all the way home...except for the last mile. Of course, I was honked at again once the bike lane ended. But that's Houston.

STATS SUMMARY

I ended the day with right at 30 miles. Details of my effort are here, but please note that my Garmin 305 hiccuped during the ride, losing a few minutes on the timer. So while the miles per hour chart seems correct, and as Tarantino has written, I am a hard hitting, pipe-swinging cyclist, I did NOT average 27.6 mph over 30 miles.

P.S. I saw lots of runners spread out on Briar Forest and in George Bush Park. I talked to someone with a megaphone that told me it was the Texas Independence Relay. Seems like a fun event.

Planning a Cold Commute

Tomorrow it should be about 45F when I start my bike commute. That's not cold for some of you commuters, but for me, it's chilly. I've been waffling back and forth between going or not, even considering hauling my bike to work in the back of my truck, and commuting home when it's a much warmer 65F. But I really want to get the full 30 mile round trip under my belt.

I'll dress warmly, and layered so I'll have a cooler clothing option for the ride home. And I'll try really hard not to think about it tonight, as there's still time for me to change my mind.

Early Run

I got up this morning to temps in the high 40s. It felt really warm under the covers, between the flannel sheets, but I rolled out of bed at 5:30a, threw on a few layers, and ran.

My standard run is 3 miles, at a 10 minute mile pace. Today was no different. It was good to get out there in the cool weather and burn some calories before breakfast.

It's supposed to get warmer as the week progresses, so I might work in a bike commute. If I'm lucky, I'll be turning that into a "same old same old" routine before too long.

Why the Hiatus?

All bloggers have their reasons why they let their blogs go stagnant. We've all read each other's reasons. Writer's block. Focusing on work or other creative endeavors. Disillusionment with the idea of a blog. My reason isn't unique, but I think it is definitely linked to changes in my cycling habits.

After all, this blog is mainly about my cycling exploits and addictions. For those of you that follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and here, you haven't been reading nearly as many comments or posts about my cycling. It should have been a good indication that I've unintentionally gone cycling cold turkey, a condition brought on by a slew of factors.

In August of 2009, I started a new job. As all new jobs do, it sucked up my time. Then in early December, Houston got it's earliest-ever snowfall, which kicked off an unusually cold and wet winter. Right before Christmas, my back decided it was totally against any physical activity. And perhaps most importantly, my family and I have been in housing transition, living with family for 6 months while searching for a new home. None of these exactly made it easier for me to remain focused on cycling. I was lucky to run a few times per week, but even that suffered.

As of today, I'm trying to be "back". It's March 1, and the weather will warm up quickly. We closed on a new house last week, and are moving in a few weeks. I've been going to a chiropractor, and either he's dramatically helping me, or time has once again healed a wound.

With all of these in my favor, I kicked off my new state of "backness" this weekend by running 3 miles on Saturday, then going on a 20 mile ride on Sunday. I could tell during both the run and the ride that I've lost some fitness. I don't really care. The only way to change it is to get back on the bike. I'll be pushing to commute a couple of times per week, and to ride on the weekends. On off days, I'll run.

I'll follow it all up with blog posts that hopefully detail the more interesting bits. If you're still out there reading, thanks for sticking with me. I'll try not to let the reasons and excuses stop my cycling or my blogging.