Bay Area Bike to Work Day

It has been a while since I checked my resting heart rate. Near the end of this morning's excursion, some riders in our group were caught behind at a long traffic light. As I waited for them, I glanced down at my receiver and saw it plummet to 59 beats per minute. While standing upright. Having just biked more than 20 miles. I never imagined that I could bike to work without breaking a sweat.

The rest of the country will celebrate Bike-to-Work Day tomorrow, but for some reason it is always held on the preceding Thursday in the Bay Area. I first tried biking to work as part of this event in 2006, and I was hooked. What better way to participate now than to lead a willing group of riders to work? Some were first timers, apprehensive about riding in traffic. Others could ride circles around us, including my ingenious co-leader - who mounts a box of donuts on his rear rack. Those with advanced skills can flip the lid and serve themselves while pedaling.
I mapped out a route with minimal climbing on wide roads with bike lanes and mellow traffic, a car-free shortcut, the new bike-ped suspension bridge, and two social stops at Energizer Stations. I was disappointed that the Cupertino stop had run out of canvas bags before we arrived, but at the same time that signaled a successful Bike-to-Work Day. There I was amused to see a guy with a disc wheel on a fixie; he didn't look the part, but . . . whatever.

By the time we arrived at the Mountain View Caltrain Station, our ranks had swollen to 14 riders. We missed all the hubbub (local news coverage), but were rewarded with our canvas goodie bags at last.

One experienced rider took me up on my offer to bike back at the end of the day, and we were both happy to pick up the pace. When I extended this offer two years ago, promising not to drop anyone, two riders joined me. Forgetting our dense population of high achievers, I was startled to learn that one guy competed in Half-Ironman triathlons and the other was a former member of the Cal Berkeley cycling team. They were gracious and didn't drop me.