Bike Commute Rocks

So after my lovely run in Charlottesville on Saturday I thought something around my right achilles felt a little weird - didn't even really hurt - just weird. So I thought, probably I should stretch that a little - and I did downward facing dog for about a minute. BIG MISTAKE. Afterwards my right achilles felt like it had been set on fire. Huh. So I've kept ice on it like crazy, and resisted the temptation to run on it (well I tried it once, but it wasn't very successful), so when I got back to Asheville I decided it was time my new road bike and I got a little better acquainted.

She's mainly been looking like pop art in our front room since I got her, because i've been a wee bit focused on the run, but this week I decided to have some fun, since the biking didn't seem to make the leg feel any worse. And after a couple of test rides I decided that really it would be both fun *and* efficient to figure out how to bike over to the farm - a bike commute as it were. So after staring at maps and weighing just how much traffic I was comfortable riding in the middle of, and how many backroads once can find around Oakley, I finally found a route - it involves a little Montford, a lot of River Road, a little Biltmore, and a lot of winding around Oakley - and it totally works! I did it a couple of times this week and it was sooo fun. Except for the first day when I was coming back on the river and the whole road was closed down for a wreck. I was about to have a chickenhearted freak out at the idea of having to ride up Biltmore Avenue to get home (and I had the not-so-small issue of a school bus I needed to meet, so I couldn't dither around too much), but then the very nice cop let me wind my bike through the wreck site and continue on down the river even though all car traffic was turning around. (Yes, it did feel weird to be riding my bike carefully around all of the broken glass, but thank goodness no it didn't look like anyone was too seriously hurt.) So the bike commute is now officially an option - it's 18 miles round trip, so not terribly far on a bike, just enough to feel like you did something. And next I'm plotting the run commute (it's only 12 miles roundtrip - more direct), but first I've got to go to my doctor's appointment Monday morning and make sure my leg's not totally in revolt. So the run commute'll probably have to wait a few weeks. In the meantime - Clark and I are off to the pool in the morning...