11/23/2005 06:17:00 AM|||John Calnan|||

The Puget Sound area has been blessed/plagued with a temperature inversion, wherein high pressure has trapped cold air near the ground. While it's unusually dry for November in the Northwest, it's cold and the air is getting pretty stagnant. Car exhaust, wood smoke, and the wafting odors of your neighbor's moo goo gai pan are all trapped at street level. Another week of this and it would be getting close to my formative years growing up in Los Angeles in the 60's, when we played football during smog alerts and used asthma inhalers to keep our lungs open.

Our dry & stinky pattern is scheduled to come to a grinding halt Thursday night, when the rains return and scrub our skies to that glistening gray that we know and love around here in the winter.

I've managed to get in a few good rides in the past week, in between work, a bathroom facelift and some other painting around the house.

Last Friday I rode from home to meet my sister for lunch to discuss her website for her longarm quilting business. That ride was 24 miles round trip, but it starts and ends with a hillclimb that's steep enough to get your attention and make you regret all the cheeseburgers you've ever eaten. The rest of the ride was flat, through the Auburn/Kent/Tukwila valley area on the Green River and Interurban Trails. Because of the time of day and cold temp there was almost nobody on the trail at all. Just me, the bunnies, and the migrating birds.

Sunday Terri and I rode the Green River Ramble, a 40 mile Cascade Bicycle Club ride that I co-led. We had a good turnout of 18 folks, including two recumbents, a tandem, and one guy on a Bike Friday. The group pace ended up being too fast for Terri, so she headed back home via the Green River Trail. We had a slow lunch in Auburn at Henry's (not recommended), then I led the group back to Tukwila via the Interurban Trail.

Tuesday night I went on another Use It or Lose It ride in Kent. We started with 8 riders, but we lost two at mile 6 or so because the pace was a bit faster than advertised. I don't have a lighted computer so I don't know exactly how fast we were going most of the time. When the street lights aligned with my attention span I caught a glimpse of "19", a bit more than the 12-14 mph scheduled pace. I got a vigorous workout though! I'm feeling it this morning, anyway.

I'll hit spin class tonight, most likely. Then it will be home to prep for the invasion of the in-laws and outlaws. There are both outdoor rides and indoor spin classes available for Thursday morning, but I don't imagine my departure a few hours ahead of the arrival of the ravenous hoard would go over well.

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone.

|||113275848812942343|||Last dry miles for a while?11/27/2005 12:20:47 AM|||Jill|||Happy thanksgiving to you, too. Great site.