Wednesday, January 19, 2005
The San Francisco Hills Kicked My @$$
On Saturday, I went to Mari's studio to finish the painting I'm working on for C's birthday. (My camera is now kind of working so maybe I'll get a photo of the painting up after C sees it on her birthday this Wednesday).
C convinced me that it would save a significant amount of time if I rode my bike to Mari's rather than transfer the two bus lines to get there. C was right. Despite the slow steady hill the entire ride up Polk Street that had me sweating and panting like I was running for my life, I made it to Mari's studio in just over ten minutes. Amazing!
The ride home, however, was another story. You see, I was able to get to Mari's in ten minutes partly due to the momentum I'd created flying down the hill that ultimately peaks at Buena Vista Park. But what I hadn't considered was that the Polk Street hill I'd travelled up would not provide anywhere near the momentum needed to climb the treacherous peak of Alamo Square on the ride home. C had been kind enough to pull out her topographical bike map of the city so that I could figure out how to ride around the SF hills. But what neither of us realized was that the map had been made for people who bike more frequently than once a year. What to the bike-happy topographer (is that a word?) was considered flat land, was frequently a rather steep incline for me.
But I suppose my heart is happy. All of that fast pumping hopefully spit all of the sticky, stagnant cholesterol out of my sedentary veins. Now isn't that a happy image to follow all of the lovely photos by the talented Daniel Malone? ;-)
C convinced me that it would save a significant amount of time if I rode my bike to Mari's rather than transfer the two bus lines to get there. C was right. Despite the slow steady hill the entire ride up Polk Street that had me sweating and panting like I was running for my life, I made it to Mari's studio in just over ten minutes. Amazing!
The ride home, however, was another story. You see, I was able to get to Mari's in ten minutes partly due to the momentum I'd created flying down the hill that ultimately peaks at Buena Vista Park. But what I hadn't considered was that the Polk Street hill I'd travelled up would not provide anywhere near the momentum needed to climb the treacherous peak of Alamo Square on the ride home. C had been kind enough to pull out her topographical bike map of the city so that I could figure out how to ride around the SF hills. But what neither of us realized was that the map had been made for people who bike more frequently than once a year. What to the bike-happy topographer (is that a word?) was considered flat land, was frequently a rather steep incline for me.
But I suppose my heart is happy. All of that fast pumping hopefully spit all of the sticky, stagnant cholesterol out of my sedentary veins. Now isn't that a happy image to follow all of the lovely photos by the talented Daniel Malone? ;-)
Comments:
Just walking in San Francisco can be taxing if I remember correctly (with all the hills and valleys)! That's wonderful that you are biking!
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