Note: this may be a little confusing. I actually already had my surgery on Friday. See my status update here. I just didn’t get around to writing about this ride until afterwards.

After work on Thursday, I wanted to fit in one last ride before my foot surgery. I thought about planning  a route, but never really got around to it. Instead, I decided to do a ramble west of town. I stopped by home first to drop off some dead weight, but forgot to drop off my lock, and I had a pannier with me, so I still had a few extra pounds to deal with. The ride was short — around 11 miles — but hilly. And, I was still dressed in my work clothes. This actually worked out just fine. I’ll be posting a video, but I will put that at the end of my post. The scenery in this video is a lot better than in previous videos. Here’s a map of the route I ended up riding.

I started heading west on Rhorer Road, which turns into Gordon Pike. This road was slightly busier than what I’m used to, and had a couple of good hills.

But I wasn’t on it for long before I turned onto the Bloomington Rail-Trail. It didn’t take long for scenery to turn more rural.

Before long I was on Church Ave, which took me to Victor Pike. I then crossed State Road 37 and was truly out in the country. The riding in this area is a lot different from where I’m used to riding. The hills are just relentless on this side of town. Most of them are smaller, but you ride one hill after another. It’s both exhilarating and exhausting. And, there are several limestone quarries out in this area, which are always interesting.

I mostly took video throughout this section, so I suppose this would be a good place to post the video. I did more editing and added music this time. The music is a track I wrote a few years ago.  The video is rather long, but the beginning and portion from about 4:30-5:30 are the best parts. Toward the end it gets dark but I kept this footage to give an idea of what the experience was like. The light was incredible for most of the ride, as it went from near-sunset, to full-on sunset, to dusk. Just lovely.

And here are a few more still shots. It felt wonderful to get out and ride, and I especially relished the opportunity, since I knew it’d be a while before I could ride again.

This was a fitting ride, both as a first real recreational ride after moving to our new house, and as the last ride before my surgery. It felt like a chapter of my riding closed but another opened at the same time. Here’s looking forward to more exploration of this beautiful land, which is different from my previous riding territory, but equally full of wonder. And, my old riding grounds aren’t too far away, either.

Here are a couple more commuting videos. In the first, I show the bike lane on Lincoln Street here in Bloomington. This is really a poorly-designed bike lane. Here are some problems:

• Throughout – Bike lane is situated in the door zone. Riding on the left edge of it helps, but I still don’t feel 100% safe with it. Sometimes I have to ride in the traffic lane to avoid the door zone.
• 0:22 -  Weird dividers between the bike lane and traffic lane. Not sure if these are really problematic but they seem odd and make me a little nervous.
• 0:34 – Hazard in bike lane (manhole cover, slippery when wet)
• 0:50 – Starting at this point, the street gets wider and the bike lane moves to the far right of the street, which soon becomes a right-turn-only lane. I avoid this by staying in the main traffic lane to go straight. After the intersection, the bike lane continues on the far right, which once again becomes a right-turn-only lane. I suppose you could go straight from the right lane, but this seems like you’d be setting yourself up for a right hook.
• 1:39 – The bike lane continues on the far right, but this is a one-way street. State law permits riding on either side. If you want to turn left (as I did), you have to maneuver across the traffic lane anyway.

In my view, this road is good for biking, and would be even better *without* the bike lanes. They encourage/force unsafe riding practices — riding in the door zone, going straight from a turn lane.

Here’s another video, in which I go through part of downtown Bloomington. I had previously been taking a route that missed the square entirely, but I’ve discovered it’s actually very pleasant riding by the square.

It’s a beautiful day. I walked outside to go to lunch and the sun was shining brightly … and for the first time in quite a while, the sun felt warm. 42 degrees has never felt so great. As I walked through downtown Bloomington, I felt a sense of wonder at the bright sun, deep blue sky and small puffy clouds in the distance.

Minutes later, I found myself brooding. Just as winter’s grasp begins to weaken, I have to have surgery. I won’t be able to take advantage of the nicer weather for at least a couple of weeks. Hell, I won’t even be able to walk to lunch for a while.

The further I walked, the more my foot hurt. Soon I was limping along, still enjoying the sun, but having a little trouble getting around. I’ve had a few doubts about my surgery, as my foot really doesn’t hurt too badly most of the time. But at that moment, I realized, quite clearly, that the surgery is definitely the right thing to do. And that in the long run, I will recover and be better off.

All of this feels a little melodramatic. My foot doesn’t hurt too badly now, and the surgery is supposed to be relatively minor. But, now I feel much more relaxed, focused, and confident. Sometimes a good walk does wonders for clearing your mind.