Woke up to a severe drizzle and coldness - wasn't able to continue to keep the cold off all day. Work was just that - work. Even though we are having a major breakthrough with projects, et al....little improvements are now taking effects. The simple things...like, having someone actually come out and service our copy machine (which has not been done from what I've been told in 3 years), brand new office chairs were ordered...leather high backed ergonomic chairs...not the crappy left over broken chairs we all have...and finally...real desks - these are the really nice design, glass, real wood, functional type desks that all high tech offices (should) have.
After work, I was dreading going on a bike ride - after yesterday....wondering if It was legal to bike on the trail after dark. So I biked the roads that ran parallel to the trail (seeing if I could see any police on the trail), dodging and weaving in and out of the traffic while dark - stoopid suburbanites not familiar with a cyclist. At this point it was really foggy, the roads were wet and I was unsure if I should chance it. I finally put in about 8 miles just riding parallel to the path (but crappy conditions, glass, cars, stop signs, et al) - it was dark and dangerous. FInally turned around and came back. Then decided to take a risk and bike on the bike trail in the opposite direction. I got all paranoid, thinking...cripes...they will see me get on the path...Oy vay. I sat there at the entrance to the trail at Sterling Blvd...about to head West when I see another cyclist's headlights heading my direction (in the direction I was going to go). When he approached, he chirped "everything all right?" I chimed back, yes...but a little paranoid...did ya see any police back there?" (I went on to tell the story and my situation...he told me (as we started biking west...he was commuting), "well,
technically you are not supposed to be on this bike trail after dark - but the rules are a little fuzzy, being that the trail is considered a park, but also a thorouhfare for commuters..." he went on giving me the ease of mind that last night's debacle was just an isolated event (he's been biking/commuting for 8 years on the trail...never one incident)
Phew, I thought...but maybe there's a crackdown. Hard to say - the presence of the cop was probably due (obviously) to the drunk homeless dude who was there...and the recent problems with the
MS-13 gangs in the area. As a cyclist, I am harmless. Just going through there as a trainer for centuries...

Speaking of which, I got turned on to a neato - sadistic concept today...the
DOUBLE Century (it's an all day, 200 mile bike ride/race, the
Davis Double Century is the most famous - 35th anniversary)...takes about 12-15 hours to complete (have to finish under 18 hours). I'm actually considering ...um... something to aspire for....to try. (
great story of someone who has done it, and
another) I feel a collective set of eyes rolling.
I will post an interesting link of a survey I found of the Washington & Old Dominion trail's recent demographic survey - quite interesting...of the few statistics that were profoundly memorable - that the average age group of the 1,800,800 people who use the trail annually - 41 years old..the largest group who uses the trail is 36 - 53 years old...the gender divide was very interesting.... 51% of the trail users are women, the 49% men...68% of the users are cyclists who train or commute daily, many marathon trainers, et al fit in the other large fitness demographic...the MOST interesting statistic/demographic.....the
median sallary (before taxes) of the people who use the trail is $92K - I was flabbergasted). This is based on the fact that 20% of the trail's users make incomes of over 120K a year, less than 20% make less than 60K. This was amazing. So look forward to this link tomorrow.