Gravity always wins?

Don't let gravity get you down.

*g*

Luigi de Guzman said:

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

huh?

Logic tells me I should be much slower coming home, but somehow it isn't
so.

Time goes slower when you're going uphill. It's the relativity thing.

Rich

Luigi de Guzman said:

So there's a net elevation loss between my house and the Metro station,
five miles and change away.

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

huh?

Logic tells me I should be much slower coming home, but somehow it isn't
so. And it isn't because I'm a phenomenal climber, because I'm not.

Go figure.

Do you ride in a northerly direction heading in and a southerly
direction heading home? (probably, or else you would wind up in MoCo and
not NoVA!) The wind was reasonably strong and steady (10-15 mph) out of
the north all day yesterday, which would have given you a a decent
headwind coming in and a tailwind on the way back.

I find that I ride faster going home than to work.

Rich wrote:
::
:: Time goes slower when you're going uphill. It's the relativity
:: thing.

It's true!

Luigi de Guzman said:

So there's a net elevation loss between my house and the Metro station,
five miles and change away.

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

huh?

Logic tells me I should be much slower coming home, but somehow it isn't
so. And it isn't because I'm a phenomenal climber, because I'm not.

Go figure.

Which way was the wind blowing?
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

Quoted message said:

Other nice things about my commute tonight: new headlight (for which see
appropriate post). And it seems that the second blinkie I have attached
to my backside works as intended--I got honked at just as I left the Metro
station. Mind, I wasn't doing anything but riding 15 mph in a 25 mph
zone, with plenty of space for a car to overtake safely if necessary. The
chap in the corolla honked not once, but twice, and gunned his engine to
blow by me...and right into a 4-way screeching stop. But he saw me, so
that's good!

-Luigi

Luigi de Guzman said:

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

I find that I'm considerably slower in the morning than in the
afternoon/evening. I speculate that it's a metabolism thing???

Keep a log over several days, to get a larger sample. You could also try
riding to the Metro station and back on the weekend -- once in the
morning, and once in the evening. See if the times correlate better with
the terrain when the out and back are at the same time of day.

I'm curious to see what you discover.

Reid

Luigi de Guzman said:

So there's a net elevation loss between my house and the Metro station,
five miles and change away.

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

huh?

What's the traffic light situation? They can add up to 10% to my
commute time.

- Frank Krygowski

Luigi de Guzman said:

So there's a net elevation loss between my house and the Metro station,
five miles and change away.

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

huh?

What's the traffic light situation? They can add up to 10% to my
commute time.

- Frank Krygowski

Luigi de Guzman said:

Quoted message said:

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely

downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

huh?

I think you are just excited to get home ;-)

Reid Priedhorsky said:

Luigi de Guzman said:

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

I find that I'm considerably slower in the morning than in the
afternoon/evening. I speculate that it's a metabolism thing???

Keep a log over several days, to get a larger sample. You could also try
riding to the Metro station and back on the weekend -- once in the
morning, and once in the evening. See if the times correlate better with
the terrain when the out and back are at the same time of day.

I'm curious to see what you discover.

On my commute, I find that car traffic is a lot heavier on the afternoon
leg than on the morning leg. This can slow you down a little, even
though your not quite as constrained by traffic flow as a car. For
example, at one point I cross an 8-lane mega-arterial with an 2 lanes of
frontage road on each side and a total right-of-way of approximately 100
ft. In the morning, traffic is bad due to rush hour. In the afternoon,
traffic is even worse, because you take the same commuters and add on
people driving to the grocery store or soccer practice or whatever.
Sometimes it takes 3 minutes to get across in the afternoon. God I hate
that road! The only redeeming feature about trying to cross it is that
it's less nervewracking than actually riding on it, with 6x8 and 8x8
arterial clusterf*cks every mile.

Luigi, next time take note of which way the wind is blowing (both ways).
Methinks this might play a bigger factor than the miniscule rate of
elevation gain/loss.

- -

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

"May you have the winds at your back,
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

Aerodynamic resistance is the main factor in limiting bicycle
speed. Especially when you're going at a fast clip, factors such as
hills that are no more than moderately inclined or the weight of the
bike, aren't nearly as important as air drag. If you were bucking a 10
mph headwind one way, going generally downhill, a 10 mph tailwind on the
return trip could make up for the hills, regarding average comparitive
speed.

Obviously, very long and steep hills can overwhelm the significance
of air drag, as shown by the 60 mph downhill speeds in some races on
mountainous courses.

Steve McDonald

Luigi de Guzman said:

So there's a net elevation loss between my house and the Metro station,
five miles and change away.

In the morning, wearing no goofy clothes, I cover the distance, largely
downhill, in 28 minutes. (See how slow and fat I've become! ugh!)

In the evening, on my way home, facing the steepest hill in town and a net
elevation gain, I cover the distance in...28 minutes.

huh?

Logic tells me I should be much slower coming home, but somehow it isn't
so. And it isn't because I'm a phenomenal climber, because I'm not.

A bit of time with topo maps and my daughter's GPS showed me home is a
hundred feet and change higher than work. But local topography beats
net topography. Going to work, there's a ridge in the middle (any way
I go!), which is a bear to climb. Coming home, it's downhill on that
ridge, and one light in the next mile and change. Since the other
rises are pretty moderate, that hill can kick my average speed up on
the way home.

Pat

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