Friday after work I went running.  It's so amazing to finally have my stride back, not have my knees hurt when I run, and not have side stitches crippling me by the second mile.  Of course, then Friday night my lower back was incredibly sore.  No rhyme or reason to it... it just hurt... and it continued on into Saturday.  Luckily Saturday I just did part of my blog move, and the rest of the day I was out of town.

Sunday I finished up my blog move, and then had to do a million other little things that I couldn't do on Saturday.  Somewhere in there I managed to find an hour to do a training ride, even though my back was still a kind of tight.  This was my first training ride outdoors.  Up until now, I'd still had my bike on the trainer.  Frankly, I just don't know what I'm going to do about riding in my neighborhood, because the Oak Leaf Trail around where I live is in absolute shambles.

I'm actually going to go around and take some pictures of the potholes in the road, and forward them to my Alderman, because its getting downright dangerous.  Underwood Parkway going through Hansen Park has some big ones now, and the big hill on that road is suicide coming down at full speed (which for me going downhill is 30 mph or better).  I wouldn't even consider going down that hill at speed now... there just is no safe line.  Menomonee River Parkway between Burleigh and Capital is awful.  I'm not sure whether it's technically in Wauwatosa, but the section of the trail on Underwood Parkway south of I-94 that is adjacent to Rainbow Park is in terrible disrepair as well.

For many bikers I'm sure this wouldn't be a problem.  After all, most of the bikes I see out these days are either Mountain Bikes or Hybrids, both with fat tires, and can take pot holes no problem.  I ride a Giant TCR, with a very thin tire inflated to about 90 PSI.  Medium to large potholes will do serious damage to the rim, and potentially crash me.  When I'm down on my aero bars, and I hit a small pot hole or a large crack, I can see my front forks (which are carbon fiber) flex.  That is freaky.  If these were any other streets, then I wouldn't be quite as upset.  But these are sections of road which are designated for biking!  You'd think then that they'd at least keep these sections of road in good enough shape for that purpose.

From time to time I don't mind tossing my bike on the rack and taking it down to the lake to ride (though Lake Dr. in between Calumet and Brown Deer Rd is no picnic either)... but I don't want to have to that every day just to get a training ride in.  Until those potholes are filled in (though they tend to do even that so poorly it hardly helps), I guess I'm going to have to start investigating new routes.

You tax dollars at work.