Flatballer

I'm a morning shower guy, so I'd just skip it at the house and shower in the little locker room at work and change. Then probably just wipe my face at home in the evening. But yeah, easier ride in is still nice.

caloso

Oh boy, is that the truth.

I was going to recommend commuting if possible. I bet 75% of my training is on the way to or from work. If you're able to take it easy on the way in, you might be able to get away with riding in your work clothes and carrying a jersey and bibs in a backpack and then you don't have to worry about showering at work. If you do your training on the way home, you can just shower at home. The downside is that it's hotter. Also, it seems to me that drivers are worse in the afternoon rush hour than in the morning, although maybe that's just a Sacramento thing.

Flatballer

It's possible, I might try it out a few ways and see how it goes. I usually wear dress slacks and a button down though, so might still have to change, even if I don't shower. Ideally your way works, except I won't commute every day, so I'll probably just take whatever clothes and stuff in the day before when I drive, so I don't have to carry a backpack.

furiousferret

I second commuting; its the most efficient use of time if that's an issue and you get into work feeling more energetic and sharper (I'm not sure why). If you need to drop pounds, do it fasted (don't eat prior to leaving and eat at work). I've never had a hard enough ride in that I've felt I needed a shower, that's probably the biggest myth about commuting, unless you go to work mid day you won't show up super sweaty.

topflightpro

Where I live, I practically need a shower after walking from my car in the parking lot to the front door.

Flatballer

Yeah, I think some of ya'll are underestimating the level of humidity here, combined with my fatness and out of shapeness, combined with my level of presentability required.

I sweat standing outside for 5 minutes, or driving in the car before the A/C kicks in. And I wear slacks, button down dress shirt, and meet with clients somewhat frequently as a PM and lead engineer, so I have to look decent usually.

We'll see though.

furiousferret

Fair enough, its not all that humid out here, and I do remember my time in Camp Lejeune, NC where you were basically wet 24/7.

caloso

This is a great solution if you can do it. At my previous job I had a locker room where I could bring in office clothes for several days ahead of time. Now I have to bring them in a backpack daily. I have my shirts laundered and folded at the cleaners and I have a way of packing my backpack that keeps things relatively wrinkle free.

Flatballer

We have a locker room, but I think the lockers are just temporary for while working out. I can stuff a bag under my desk though.

I should have an office in 6 months or so probably, which makes everything even easier and gives me a place to put my bike for sure.

burnthesheep

I could do it again, likely quicker...........but would it be a dick move to split a ride to fix an anomoly that kept me from bagging a sweet segment? I bet it would get flagged.

I zoomed in to the ride and I beat it, clock didn't stop at the intersection for some reason.

TMonk

Most weeks (like this one) I drive in on Mondays and Fridays. On Monday I bring clothes and some food for T/W/Th. A straight shot commute is only 7 miles, so I usually train before and/or after work. It's pretty sweet to have my car parked for three days out of the week and not even drive at all.

furiousferret

On many of my commute days a few of us walk to the local grocery store to get food for lunch. We've stepped on syringes, there were spent rounds nearby last week, and while its disturbing it really hasn't bothered us but this just may:

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019...an-bernardino/

We are obviously out of place when shopping there and do get some disturbing looks, so I think we're done. All 3 of us have grown up in bad areas so it didn't phase us but at this point it should. Our work is supposed to move to a new location next year and that can come any sooner.

TMonk

Holy crap FF, that is nuts! I used to work in grocery stores growing up. Stater Bros was my first job! But not in San Bernardino haha.

Flatballer

This is just the absolute worst kind of preying on people who aren't computer savvy.

They're going to charge $2 each, for duplicate vehicle registration cards, when you're registering online, and you have to print everything yourself.

So you could hit "print 2 copies" or you could pay an extra $2.

Nice.

Flatballer

Commute this morning was good. Took about 33 minutes or so, driving takes 18 or 20 usually. Shower wasn't bad, definitely necessary, and I'll get quicker once I figure out a better routine.

I need the shower so badly that even after the shower, and after changing, and after getting back to my cube, I was still overheated and forehead sweating a bit. I need a cooler shower next time to cool off. I don't think no shower is going to be possible for me though. It's overall downhill, but relatively rolling on the second half with some decent (for me) climbs.

Overall it probably cost me an extra 20 minutes more than driving. Today I'll take a slightly long way home probably. Going to try and start commuting 2 days a week consistently and see how it goes. One day straight home, one day longer ride on the way home.

cmh

Flat****** don't forget to add up the miles you are keeping off your vehicle by commuting. $0.545 is the cost to drive each mile (per the IRS). It would be plain wrong to not spend that on bike stuff.

Flatballer

Haha. I'm not sure my wife will buy that, but I'm up for trying.

Ttoc6

I've taken a step back from tech this year on the bike. Saves me so much time not analyzing every ride immediately when I get home. Now I throw it on strava, rename the activity, put some pictures up (maybe). Then I check out Trainerroad to get an idea of the effort I put in.

K.I.S.S!

topflightpro

A/C went out last night. Went to dinner, and everything was fine. Came home and my wife commented it was kind of warm. And it just got hotter. Temps probably peaked around 10:30 or 11.

She's trying to get an A/C repair person in to fix it this morning.

burnthesheep

I like having a little competition once in a while, but still can't find peace with myself between my local offerings and my family schedule.

I keep having people I ride with tell me to do CX. I have a Crockett. I ride probably a 3 hour gravel ride with some technical aspects to it every other week. I'm just really afraid of endo'ing in practice or a race, as I'm pretty sure the fitness is far beyond the handling skills.

Like, when gravel riding I still almost poop myself if the rear end starts coming around on a corner and the inside foot has to unclip. I'd assume you're doing that the whole time in a cross race.

The whole mount and dismount thing doesn't bother me. I'd just need shoes as my "spd" shoes are hacked up roadie shoes with zero sole/tread to them.

Maybe I should get a pair of used shoes and at least go do some practice riding.

It really would lend itself well to my "time crunched" schedule and local racing needs.

Someone convince me I should do it. It's not too late to grab some shoes and start doing laps.

How are the mixed spd pedals versus just using MTB pedals? I find the MTB ones a bit difficult to get into/out of in a hurry.

topflightpro

And the A/C repair person cannot come to look at our system until tomorrow. Yay!

hubcyclist

I'm totally in on CX, I find it fits my lifestyle and makes the fall super fun for me to race every weekend and mainly really close to home. I always saw myself as enjoying long road events, and I love going out on long rides, but the longer road races in New England take a while to drive to from my Boston suburb location, plus the time it takes to race. My town cycling group has super fit people who don't race and I can go get my butt kicked with them for 3hrs on the weekend.

I started CX to see what it was all about and was hooked immediately, it's a fun way to spend 40mins, it isn't demoralizing to be back of the pack since there's always a race within a race (fortunately I've improved to being upper half last year, best result near the end of year was 25th/70). I'm an odd one in that I raced all of last season and aside from the actual races, I spend zero time riding off-road (I don't have any type of off-road background either). Maybe I end up racing too conservatively as a result of my lack of practice, but I handle myself pretty well in CX (I've fallen less than 5 times in 2 years of racing). So, for me, CX training and racing works way better with my lifestyle, and hopefully after improving my staging points last season I can be in a better position to routinely be more competitive this year.

cmh

I started racing CX last year because my 13 yr old son really likes it and I had a great time. It lacks the tactical fun of road/crit racing, but the scene at the race is more fun and it is a good for fitness and bike skills. Don't worry about endoing in a CX race. Really fast corners similar to a downhill on a gravel road are rare (at least in Oregon CX). Much more common are a bunch of tight corners in a row that take some skill, but you aren't going so fast that you are likely to get hurt if you go down. You'll want a pair of mountain bike pedals and shoes.

burnthesheep

I think I'll try it. I own a bike for it, so why not. Start off slow and at an endurance pace and slowly build up some confidence and skills to go quicker.

But yeah, there's a few downhillers and "S" bends at good speed in Umstead that I'm always worried about going off into the trees at a tragic speed. I've accidentally locked the brakes before the one corner on Turkey a couple times and started sliding through the corner. Usually it's because I thought it had been good weather and the corner would be nice but there was a storm through that part of town that washed a rut into the middle of the corner.

Flatballer

I messed up my face at Umstead (Lake Crabtree technically I think, but they connect) doing dirt jumps on a XC bike, so you can't do much worse there than me.