I have been off riding for a couple of days due to a nasty cold that has blasted my endurance and kept me in bed too long to catch the bus. I miss the open road, and the fumes from my VW Fastback are starting to make me twitch.

Anyways, something that I have noticed is that I love riding to melodic music. When I was a runner, I would only run to upbeat, fast paced music. I was trying to use this paradigm when riding my bike home but have found that melodic music fits the bill quite nicely. I have listened so far to Death Cab and Sufjan Stevens. I find the melodic tones keep me at peace. My stress level lowers. I am able to pay better attention and enjoy my ride more.

If you haven't tried it. Try it. It might just change an ok ride into a great one.

As I said in my last post, last Friday was a tough ride. Now that I am back in action, let me give you some of the music from my rides last week:

Monday:
Ride Home: Mayer Hawthorne and Phil Wickham, Cannons

Wednesday:
Ride In: The Shins, Shoots Too Narrow
Ride Home: Beatles, Help and Billy Joel, The Stranger (by far the best of the week)

Friday:
Ride In: Switchfoot, Hello Hurricane (little did I know that I would be meeting a hurricane on my way home)
Ride Home: The rain has pelted my remembrance away.

I learned many valuable lessons today:

• Riding in the rain gets you wet.


• Riding in the rain gets you freakin wet.


• Tully and Orangeburg flood.


• When one is wet, one is cold.


• Perseverance still has its glory even in the rain.

If you couldn't tell, I rode home in the rain today. I had planned on doing a round up of the weeks thoughts and songs, but due to my overly wet and tired state. I'll save that for tomorrow.

On another note, I had some problems on my ride into work today with my front tire. I stopped to inspect the weirdness and discovered it to be a little flat. I got out my trusty hand pump and pumped it up the best I could. It was still a little splashy, but it got me the 6 mi. into work. I had some help from the guys in the Assembly Shop at work refilling my tires. Safe to say: riding with even slightly deflated tires ruins the rideability of your bike. Always make sure your tires are pumped before you ride.

Hello and welcome to Fixieland. I've started this blog to chronicle my experiences riding to and from work on my fixed gear bicycle. I plan to post my frustrations with four wheelers, the music that is getting me through my rides, interesting links to helpful sites regarding bikes, and a whole host of other goodies. I can't say that from time to time I won't wander away from the fixed gear topic. I'm not going to be posting Martha Stewart Recipes, but art and culture might make their way into the blog from time to time. Welcome once again, and I hope to see you around here real soon.