Final Day as a Bike Commuter

Hard to believe, but this post is not a late April Fools Day joke. The company I work for is closing the San Diego office. No, I'm not out of work, I'm now a full-time work from home employee. I started bike commuting in January 2008 on a Trek Hybrid bike, but within a few months I upgraded thanks to former President Bush's stimulus check and bought the Surly Long Haul Trucker.

A few times a month I'd take a walk to the local mall and hit my two favorite places - Starbucks for an iced green tea, no water, no sweetener and Rubio's Fish Tacos Especials.

The night before, I added up all the miles I've commuted over that 27 months. I typically rode Monday through Thursday. Fridays I was a teleworker, I worked from home. The whiteboard in the cube I stored my bike, I left a little note for the movers:

This is where I stored the Surly during the work day. An empty cube was a perfect place to park the beast. It was safe, I never had to worry about it chained to something outside.

At the end of the day, I finished packing up my office. I probably had 40 pounds of office stuff: laptop with docking station, keyboard/mouse, clothes, food, shoes, project documentation, and a few books thrown in for good measure. This was probably the heaviest I've ever loaded the Surly. The Transit rack I've used all this time was up to the task, just barely. It's stamped for 50 pound max load, but I don't think I'd put that much on it. The rack was moving around a bit while I rode home. During the ride home, I did have to use the 32 up front climbing Mission Gorge hill. Got dropped by some dude riding with 2 flats, but I didn't care. I was savoring my final ride home.

Safely arrived at home, I parked the Surly like I normally would. Sat down and took the photo below. About the only changes to the bike I've done over these 27 months was to add the Topeak Road Morph G, Shimano generator hub powering a B&M LED light. This bike never left me stranded on the road. It rode flawlessly for over 10,000 miles. The only thing I've ever had to deal with was the occasional flat.

I used bike commuting as training for brevets. Nowthat my commute is measured in feet, I'll have to ride in the mornings. I'll have no problem getting 2.5 to 3 hour rides before heading to my new "office". I'm thinking morning rides on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during the week. For the weekends, every other Sat 60-80 mile rides. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays I'll be doing light upper body. My goals for 2011 is to earn Super Randonnuer  and I know I need to work on climbing. With the time I've mentioned I have available per week, how should I train? If you'd like to put together a training program for me, please post your training ideas as a comment to this post.

Thanks!

SurlyRando