Putting my money where my cranks are

I had to go to Sydney for Monday and Tuesday this week for work.  After making the discovery that cyclists recieve free and unlimited parking at Canberra airport, I figured that I had no excuse to drive my car there.

So.... Monday morning I got out of bed at the very bright and early hour of 4:15 am.  On the bike by 4:25 am, and pedalling away while listening to the audio book "The invisible gorilla"  Google it.  I did, here's their website
http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/

It's an amazing book, that really starts to uncover the fact that our brains simply don't work the way we think they do.... and that really, what you see isn't necessarily a complete and true representation of reality.  It's completely awesome, and I'm only about a quarter of a way through the book.  Can't wait to listen to the next installment.  I'll add the comment though, the psychological study covers gory details of car vs bike accidents, ie those ones where the car driver says "they just came out of nowhere" and stats actually showed that hi-vis and fluro gear doesn't have a statistically significant reducing effect on your likelyhood of avoiding a car vs bicycle accident.

I ruefully glanced down and back at my hi-vis pannier covers, my flashing rear red light, my flashing orange spokey-dokey light, my high-vis ankle bands, my reflective vest, and self-consciously adjusted my head-torch, and front handle bar mounted flashing white light.  "Am I fluro enough for ya?" I thought?
I didn't need to worry too much about my visibility, as during my cycle to the airport (almost 30km) I counted a total of 12 cars, and one garbage truck sharing the road with me.  The only other soul I came across was a bunny rabbit who gave me a surprised look before ambling out of the bike lane near the base of black mountain.

I'll be quite honest, and admit that if I'd known how cold it actually was in Canberra on Monday morning, I may have elected to contribute a little bit to global warming by driving my car to the airport and forking out the fifty bucks or so to park.  I noticed that my wrists and hands were getting quite cold, despite my full-finger gloves, long sleeve jersey, and thermal layer (yeah I know right now everyone is thinking... oohhhh sexy lady......)

The views, and general pleasantness of the pre-dawn ride kept me going.  Cycling past Anzac Avenue in the dark is stunning, the parliament house and war memorial just look amazing.  The sections with road works are a tad challenging, as the road narrows and the bike lane disappears.  I would like to thank the courteous canberran drivers who made every effort to share the road, and leave a reasonable space especially while driving on the narrow sections.  See! my fluro gear and flashing lights are working a treat!

I arrived at the airport, and followed the parking manager's instructions (if you want to cycle to Canberra airport just google "canberra airport parking" and navigate to the page, the parking manager's number is on the website to call) and drove in the "no entry" section of the hire car parking bay, and turned immediately to the right.  A total of eight bicycle parking bays are available, the parking is a simple set up where you lock your bike (BYO lock) to a retro-style bike rack like the type you would find out the front of a milk bar in the 1980's.  They are not the fancy U shaped ones that are bolted to the concrete.  However, logically the chances of someone stealing a bike from the airport are pretty slim... seriously, who's going to go out to a seriously secure establishment, which is constantly attended by the AFP, in order to nick a bike.  Then, once you've got it what do you do with it?  Ride it all the way back to town?...  There's one other bike parked at the rack.  I give a little mental shout out to my fellow cyclist.

Upon dismounting the bike, I discover why my hands and wrists were so bloody freezing.  A layer of frost had formed over my hands, and some of the ice was working it's way through the gap between my gloves and the sleeve of my jersey.  Okay... before 5am, sub zero temperatures, 28km to ride to the airport with business attire in the panniers.  That's putting my money where my cranks are. 

I get a couple of odd looks as I stride into the airport and check into my flight stylishly attired in leggings and a bicycle jersey.  No comments though.  The Qantas club provides adequate refreshment, breakfast and warmth.  The cold really erm... stimulates the apetite.  I virtually inhaled two slices of raisin toast that were so thick they could be mistaken for bits of 2by-4 from a distance.  I then moved onto fruit and coffee, and with a warm and full belly strolled onto my flight, easily stowing the panniers in the overhead locker.  I noticed my colleague, who was heading off to Sydney with me; sporting half open eyes and a five'o'clock shaddow.  He also looked rather incredulous at how disgustingly chipper and chirpy I was at this hour of the morning.

The return journey was just as much fun.  Upon preparing to exit the aircraft when returning to Canberra my seat neighbour gave me a few confused looks as while waiting for the aerobridge to deploy I popped my jersey on over my clothes, cliped my ipod to the collar of my jersey, tucked a drink of water in to the back pocket of the jersey, and slipped my ubiquitous fluro covers over my panniers.  I cycled past him on the way out of the car-park, he was still standing at the terminal exit, waiting for a taxi. 

The bike home was much busier, too much traffic to count individual cars.  I found myself with plenty of energy and a desire to attack the bigger hills, and was genuinely surprised at how much power my legs prouced when I got out of the seat and really gave the cranks a determined push.  Along coulter drive I enjoyed a traffic light conversation with another cyclist, he was on a very spiffy road bike, so I suggested that he might want to go ahead of me on the green light as he'd be faster.  Obviously 2 days worth of shirts and trousers, and toiletries weighs a lot, as I kept right on his tail without much effort for 2 blocks down coulter drive. (it's not my weight surely!)  He zipped off into the distance when I hit he flat at coulter and southern cross.

The final Bicycle joy moment occured when I turned onto my street, only to do a double take, seeing someone carrying an overnight bag, getting off the bus and walking up my street.  Nooo surely not.  I cycled closer, was tempted to shout hello.... when I realised that this was my colleague, who happens to live in the same suburb I do exiting the bus and commencing his walk home. But I elected to keep my mouth shut on this occasion.  I cycled up the driveway into my unit complex, warmly smug in the knowledge that not only did I beat the tyranny of high taxi fares and airport parking fees, but that I'd be home quicker on my bike than someone who used an internal combustion engine to get there.  It wasn't peak hour, and the trip was almost 30km in distance.  I must have had a tailwind or something, as I had an average speed of about 26km/h for this ride.  Everything is better on a bike.

Queanbeyan ride

Yesterday I cycled down to Queanbeyan and return.  Cycled down via Belconnen Way, then the highway.  Time 40 minutes to the city, 1:00 to the airport and roughly 1:20 to Queanbeyan.  Total ride about 60k's... Total time on the bike... about 2 and a half hours.

My spiffy mountain bike came from Hammer'n'cycle Queanbeyan, so I figured I'd ride it down there for it's "settle in" service.
While waiting for the lovely people at the bike shop to service my bike, I took a stroll through the shops, and had a coffee. 

It was pretty chilly on the ride out, and upon returning home I checked out the www.bom.gov.au  to discover that it had been -1C ... no wonder it felt a bit nippy.  However, I listened to most of "I am legend" as an audio-book on my ipod.  I don't think I'd survive without the ipod.  I had a funny moment while stopped at a set of traffic lights, as the line "Do muslim vampires cower from the cross" intoned through my ear buds.  I started laughing; and the guy driving the car in the lane next to me gave me a very odd look.  Note to self: just because I can hear what's going on in my ipod... nobody else can.  That guy just saw some crazy lady on a bike start laughing at nothing...  As an aside, I am legend is a great book.

The ride back was just lovely, blue skies, sun shining.  I took the shorter way back via William Hovel drive.  If anything the short cut took me a tad longer to ride back, as crossing the freeway exits every couple of K's required a stop and a dismount to do safely.  However, there's no 2nd chances when mixing a push-bike with car and truck traffic at 90-100k's per hour, so slow and safe it is. 

I ended up getting back home in time for lunch, taking approximately 1:30 to ride from Queanbeyan to Florey. 
I hope to start taking a few pictures while out cycling to share, but I managed to lose my USB cable that connects my camera to my computer while moving to the ACT.  It's proving more complicated that I expected to replace the item, as the electronics shop at my local shopping center doesn't stock it, so I'll have to go to a camera store, as I'm away for work this will have to wait till mid-next week.

Tomorrow my training ride will be more getting up and going when I really don't feel like it.  I have a 6:45 am flight to Sydney where I have to be Monday and Tuesday for work.  I've discovered that Canberra Airport allows bicycles to park for free in the undercover car park.  Since I'm an environment specialist, I suppose I really should put my money where my mouth is, and reduce my carbon footprint.  I can also save myself about fifty bucks in parking fees.  Sweet.  My bicycle is going to pay for itself in no time.  The only catch is that in order to make my check in time, I'll need to be on the bike at about four in the morning.  In Canberra, heading into winter.  That's some serious bike love.

However, I know that I'll feel like such a champion when I stroll into the airport lounge in my cycling gear, and stroll out to board the aircraft looking sharp as in my suit  completely worth an early morning and being a bit chilly.

I'll sign off for now, and will be back next week.

M