[JeffC]

@dasgeh 35781 wrote:

Your post sounded a little defensive, but I think your yearly riding sounds awesome.

No, I am just in amazed that somebody could get 5000 or more miles a year. I seem tired enough doing not even half of that.

[JeffC]

You all have some longish commutes or else get in a lot of rec rides to rack up so many miles. I have a wife, two young kids, an old house and I am the main chef, gardener, and handyman so if it was not for commuting I would not be riding my bike at all, ok well on a vacation with my dad I biked about 15 flat miles on a rental bike but that’s my only rec riding for all of 2012.

I only track mileage and based on that, I’ve done around 90 to 95 round trip commutes (22 miles roundtrip from Falls Church to downtown DC). When I take the subway, I also do a short commute (3 miles roundtrip) from my house to EFC metro which I also log for miles.

I have a lot of other physical interests like training with kettlebells and weights and if I bike too much my 40ish body gets too tired to do my weight training. Unfortunately if I bike too much, I’ve found that my muscle mass tends to decrease and while I get lean it can be on the skinny/fat side so for me it is all about balancing physical pursuits and having 2 to 3 days per week where I do my biking with the other days for rest and weight training.

Also having commuted now for five years, sometimes (I know this sounds like a travesty) I get bored on the same route. Just knowing I have options helps, even if I then get tired of riding the subway after a few days too. I’ve put more miles on my bikes than on our secondary car (a 13 year old Honda Accord). When I got the oil changed on it the other day, the guy was shocked that I only put 1500 miles on it in 9 months.

I get the transit subsidy at work but now what you don’t use is forfeited back so I just get the maximum and rarely use it all. Sometimes with crazy work and home schedules I can only bike a few times a month (usually in winter) and use most of it, but not so often.

[JeffC]

nothing requires a 75 or 100 year term

[JeffC]

@DaveK 35541 wrote:

It can be just as much of a disaster if it’s a lease. Read about the Chicago parking meter lease – possibly one of the worst financial decisions by a municipality in history.

That does not mean that every public sector lease of property is necessarily a bad deal for the public though, done right there is no reason it cannot be a “win-win” situation. Of course, who wants to hear about a win-win situation in the press, far more entertaining to read about the disaster cases like in Chicago and us scofflaw bikers!

[JeffC]

@mstone 35536 wrote:

I don’t have any problems with charging for road use, I have a problem with turning public infrastructure over to private companies for short-term revenue tricks. We all know that the taxpayer will end up footing the bill for anything that goes wrong (the public gets all the risk) so why should we give away the rewards?

I fully agree about short-term revenue tricks, ideally we would raise taxes to pay for woeful infrastructure in Northern Virginia in a more transparent manner.

I’m no expert about all the nuances of these arrangements but probably know more about them than say 98% of the population owing to a fortuitous work assignment. That said, I disagree with you that there should be a perception that toll roads and the like are “turned over to private companies.” In all the instances I have seen, the infrastructure is leased. The Federal Government also leases land to others for grazing and mineral rights, I’ve leased apartments and houses to live in. I don’t think the ultimate owner believes the property being leased was “turned over”. It’s a lease, the owner still owns it, the lessee has the right to use subject to certain restrictions, a common legal arrangement created when two parties dicker over the terms.

[JeffC]

I remembered one more bad weather incident: the sudden ice storm a few years ago. I only had a short ride to the Metro that day but on my 1.5 mile bike ride home I noticed my brakes not working and making a wierd sound so I pulled over and took off my gloves and to my surprise my top tube was entirely iced over. I walked back the rest of the way and there were several slippery spots on the sidewalks, not fun. Since I am not ever going to spring for studded tires, ice storms will always stop me from riding . . . I’ve got a wife and two kids to care for.

As to the hot lanes, the main impetus for letting private companies operate hot lanes, bridges, toll roads, and other infrastructure is that the local political jurisdiction (state, county, etc.) gets a big up front lease payment from the private operator and gives up the burden of maintenance. This allows the jurisdiction to take in extra funds without raising taxes in the short term. The jurisdiction may also get a cut of the tolls collected.

I am actually somewhat perplexed at the resistance to this although it has nothing to do with raising taxes which I would be fine with. What is wrong with asking car drivers that put a huge burden on the public fisc to pay to use roads over and over again? in a sense this takes the burden of using a particular resource (road, bridge, etc.) which the public at large is paying for and asks the chronic user to pay for instead. Maybe if they get irked enough, they will be inclined to find and support other alternatives like biking?

As to whether or not this is unprecedented, you would be shocked at the level of tolls in other countries. A couple years ago I drove from central France to southern France (around Nice) and paid nearly $100 in tolls for the whole trip.

[JeffC]

Since staring commuting about 5 years ago, my idea of what is extreme has changed. High or low temps really don’t bother me much or pose an obstacle. Each season has its challenges: spring has pollen which makes things miserable as a contact lens wearer; summer has the high temps and thunder storms; fall has much less light and tons of leaves on the ground; and winter has the cold and ice.

The one time I wiped out and injured myself was on wet leaves and twigs near the S curve of death. The biggest impediment I perceive to habitual safe commutes is not extreme weather but extremely inept bike riding skills I see from others. In short, while weather is a challenge to me, my perception is that man made challenges pose more of a risk to my safety.

[JeffC]

Anybody know if the MVT from Roosevelt Island to the 14th St Bridge is ok? In particular low parts of the stretch between the Memorial Bridge and 14th St Bridge have been covered by the Potomac in the past as the flow raises from upstream rains or snow melt. I think this happened earlier this year in April but cannot remember, may be have been 2011. It is not a huge inconvenience but something to be aware of.

[JeffC]

You can also give to them through the CFC if your employer participates. I give an amount each pay period which then qualifies me for membership, quick and easy way to do it.

[JeffC]

@dasgeh 33773 wrote:

My dream Custis would have grade separation between peds and cyclists. I.e. cars would drive in normal lanes, then there’d be a little curb or similar, and bikes would ride on lanes at that level. Then there’d be a normal curb, and pedestrians would have a normal sidewalk. It would also help if the sidewalk looked more like a sidewalk (scored concrete, no lines, etc) and the bike lanes looked like something for wheels (no scoring, asphalt if possible, clear yellow lines). I’m not familiar with Jones Point Park — what do they do there to encourage separation?

That’s the way many sidewalks are in Germany and Austria, perhaps rather than a normal curb the ped and bike parts are separated with metal poles every few yards, a very slight curb (maybe an inch or two high), or different colored pavement. In any event, there are frequent signs or markings on the pavement indicating where bikes and peds go. Alas this is not very friendly for the ELITE ones who should just stick to the streets.

[JeffC]

Couple thoughts, get out of the area for awhile, even a long weekend, the change of perspective helps.

Bike to work earlier. I started leaving an hour earlier and it makes a huge difference. ELITE riders don’t like weighing down their 15lb bikes with useless things like flaslights and reflectors so only bike during daylight.

For anger management: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443675404578058523419497306.html

Totally agree that the infrastructure here is pathetic. It’s getting better. I was in Budapest and Vienna (Austria, not Virginia) a few weeks ago and was blown away by how MUCH better the biking infrastructure is there than here. Boulder, CO and Davis, CA are also great. Arlington is getting better, I won’t deny the real improvements seen on the Custis in the past few years, but we have so much farther to go.

Part of the problem here is that the ELITE ones also share the pathetic infrastructure that exists with the rest of us. I saw a single ELITE rider in Austria and he was riding on a road with cars (where he should be) not on the bikes only trails with the slower moving commuter cyclists.

[JeffC]

@dasgeh 28949 wrote:

I have these for all the bikes we ride at night and definitely recommend them. http://www.bikeglow.com/

I think there was a groupon for $15/set, and normal price seems to be $25. Batteries have lasted a long time.

Thanks for the ideas, these are really great. The bike I ride most in the winter already has reflective tire sidewalls and some reflective material on the bags I use. I could always affix more reflective tape though. I do really like the idea of a light though.

For anybody that uses Bikeglow, can you unplug the battery unit when you know you won’t be using it for awhile (say in the spring and summer when days are long)? I think be able to do so would cut down on theft and just be one less thing likely to get damaged. From the video, it looks like you can but I just wanted to be sure before I bought it.

[JeffC]

@DaveK 28245 wrote:

I’m not picking on you personally but I hate this idea that lifting heavy will make you big. It’s just false, and it scares off women in particular because “I don’t want to look like Arnold”. Lifting heavy + eating heavy will make you big. You can’t gain size without the calories – it’s just not possible. In order to get “toned” you need to drop your body fat and build muscle. If you keep your calories in check, lifting weights will give you that look of muscle tone you’re after quicker than body weight alone. Here’s the trick – if you are lifting heavy and controlling calories, muscle tissue is denser than fat. If you add muscle and decrease fat, you will look leaner, and yes, more “toned” than decreasing fat alone.

It’s also a matter of certain hormones like testosterone which women generally don’t produce as much as men.

[JeffC]

@Jason 28100 wrote:

I would skip the clean and press, which is a high difficulty olympic lift and instead do deadlift one day and squat another. That way, then add in a pressing movement (dumbell press or bench press) and a pulling movement (row) and you should be good to go. Sounds like the combination of non-weight bearing lifting and a high amount of cardio sucked away your muscle. Maybe another issue was caloric intake, if you go under a certain amount, your body starts eating itself, maybe that contributed to your muscle loss.

I should have been clear that I don’t do barbell clean and press olympic style but rather kettlebell clean and press which is not nearly as technically demanding. Part of my problem is that I don’t have a barbell at home, only kettlebells and sandabags. At my work, there is a very small gym with a couple barbells so one day a week after biking in, I can do a couple sets of heavy deadlifts (working up to 2 x bodyweight) and then do some sets of kettlebell clean and presses at home.

I think there is a law of diminishing returns with chronic cardio, too much at the expense of heavy lifting may zap your muscles and certainly increases your appetite.

[JeffC]

I commute pretty regularly, racking up about 2000 miles a year. For about a year I did an experiment trying to lose some weight. I got a Bod Pod test beforehand and was discouraged by my bodyfat percentage (around 29%). For a period of slightly over a year, I dilligently did 5 of the Convict Conditioning moves for strength training once per week (all but the head stands/shoulder press movement) and biked to work regularly. After roughly a year, I got a DEXA scan test and while I lost nearly 16 lbs about half was fat and half was muscle so my body fat percentage did not go down nearly as much as I would have liked given the amount of weight I lost. I was also told that I had low bone mineral density overall although in my hips and lower back it was good.

I just don’t think that cycling alone and Convict Conditioning were a good combo for me to lose weight and preserve my muscle mass. Since then I have tried to focus more on heavy deadlifts once a week and heavy clean and presses once a week, just to preserve what I have (and maybe grow a bit) while overall trying to lose weight. This is kind of the template from the book “Power to the People.”

[Author]

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