It feels good too!
My first ride of the season happened today (Tuesday April 13). I picked up the bike and ran some other errands and returned home dropped off that stuff, got lunch, ran some more errands.
I came home and busted out my bike gear and got back in the saddle.
I rode for a little more than one hour and that ride amounted to about 12.5 miles of riding. It went well, but seemed harder than I recall. Focusing on only the next milestone, whether that be a road, a bridge, a town, or whatever pulled me through.
I had one problem, my odometer & speedometer was not working. So I only got a current time and about 25% the way I told myself the first of reaching a certain landmark or 4:35 pm would be my turnaround point. Of course, I got very close to the landmark at 4:35 so I pushed on, reached the landmark, and turned around. This time I played a game, would pound out a stretch giving myself a landmark and a time to beat, after I hit the landmark (all such targets were met, yes, I need to make them more challenging next time) I would then spend some time pedaling less aggressively getting my wind back.
Yeah, the wind was in my face both going and coming, or so it seemed (I am talking about the real wind not apparent wind) no matter what it seemed the wind was always pushing harder than my speed. The trail was in rough shape, two giant holes by the swamp bridge were marked with sticks and I hit a small one on the return leg, it did not hit so hard as I thought it would.
The very last leg of my trip is a steep hill climb, I take it easy on the leg immediately preceding that climb, and I was afraid with it being my first trip of the year my legs would not be up to it (my long trip last year, I was not able to get up the hill w/o dismounting and walking), but I was wrong! I made it up the hill and it seemed easier than expected.
I hope to make this my routine ride and on the weekends or when I have time, I will push out and this year I hope to make it Oshkosh.
BTW, I figured out what was wrong with my speedometer/odometer. The front wheel received a new skewer (asked for the parts name today and this time I remembered it) and when they remounted the wheel they put it on left & right sides switched. You see, there is a magnet mounted on a spoke and that is aligned with sensor mounted on the fork. Since the magnet was away from the sensor no signal was being sent to the speedometer/odometer and no information more than the current time.
Mark,
You were crushing it with your bike ride. Your bike journey reminds me a lot of life’s journeys – sometimes the wind is in our faces (coming and going); when we see our landmark (goal) in sight we need to keep pushing even if we don’t get there right on time; sometimes we need to play games with ourselves (talk to ourselves) to keep our head in the game; and we need to keep on going on that last steep leg of the trip to reach the end and gain the prize.
I am enjoying your posts a lot. Keep them coming.
Debbie, thanks for the comment. Yeah, I like the bike rides and the isolation (a future topic?) provided just my bike, nature, and myself and intense focus.
Thank you, for the encouragement, I need it today started out good, but got real down and is ending with me in a cursing frame of mind (and actually doing it).
Mark