Trees Hall

Since I moved to Pittsburgh, one bike ride that has been a distinctive constant is the ride to Trees Hall.  Trees Hall is where my U.S. Masters swim team, Team Pittsburgh, has practice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings with our wonderful coach Jennifer Michaels.   It is well known in the adult swim and water polo communities that a USMS practice is somewhere that anyone can go and get their ass kicked in the water by someone much older, and Team Pitt is no exception.  I love getting my butt kicked.

My bike parked in front of Trees.  Those are my teammates
Josh and Vlad standing there.  I told them to wave.

While this building is technically on Pitt's campus, it is actually located in Pittsburgh's Hill District, an appropriately named neighborhood.  In other words, the pool sits right at the top of a big hill.  Therefore, in order to get to swim practice three days a week, I need to ride my bike up a big hill first. (Because, seriously, why would I drive my car?)  But I didn't actually think this part out clearly when I first moved to Pittsburgh from New Orleans, a flat flat flat place.

I moved to Pittsburgh on a Friday, so on Monday morning I got on the Sedona to scout out Trees Hall to avoid getting lost going to practice later that evening.  The day was hot, sunny, and gorgeous, and I was cruising.  I merrily found my way to Centre Avenue and somewhere around Craig street started feeling kind of hot.  I kept riding, and suddenly, it was kind of hard to ride.  I remembered then that my bike came with gears for some reason, and started shifting down.  It got easier for like a second, and then I was dying.   I made it almost to Bellefield Avenue (2 blocks) before I had to get off the bike and start walking.  I walked that Sedona up that hill, made that turn onto University, and all hot and sticky made it to Trees Hall.  Phew!   So clearly, later that evening, I got right back on the Sedona and went back up the hill.  That time I made it all the way to Bigelow (one more block) and as a bonus, got a lecture from some older guy who was walking down the hill about using the granny gear.

But the true gem of this story is what happened when I left swim practice that first evening.  All refreshed from a swim and shower, I got on that Sedona and I flew home.  WEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Laura and myself in matching swimsuits at the Trees pool

Two months later, I would eventually ride that Sedona all the way up that hill and straight to Trees Hall.  My knees were shaking when I made that turn, but I did it.  Every time I bust up that hill like nothing, I am reminded of this. However, I usually come from my office at Pitt.  This is a very short ride with a steep elevation.  This hill is steeper than any point along the Centre Avenue climb but significantly shorter and hence less difficult, so I was puffing on the Sedona up this one pretty early on.  Nowadays, I'm riding the Traveler (another story, another fantastic bicycle) so the hill is even easier to blast up.

I guess the point of this whole story is that a few days a week I ride my bike up a hill.  Sounds like I live in Pittsburgh n'at.