The weather forecast for Monday was anything but accurate. Expected to be near 38 degrees in the morning, I had staged all my winter-weather gear on the couch. What I woke up to was about 10 extra degrees (bonus!), so I had to break into the bedroom where my wife was quietly sleeping and gather alternate, warmer weather gear. Also, when I flipped on the back yard flood lights to see how much moisture there was, I was excited to see everything was bone-dry. But by the time I left, it was drizzling. Huh? Weird. That didn't last but a few miles anyways. Geez, what a confusing morning.
This time of year is fun to ride on the rail trail. Morning's especially. It's usually fully covered with fallen leaves to where you care barely see the asphalt and the leaves show so bright and colorful against my headlight, its like day. And to me, the smell of Fall is something I love and will never forget. The ride in was rather uneventful, spotted a few deer here and there. I had a few moments of sadness thinking about Pastor Robert a few times, then what I've been expecting and hoping would never come to be...the guy with dogs. No longer had dogs. The second one must have passed on over the span between my last commute and that morning. So it was a sad ride in, but the fresh air does more than I probably figure no matter the quality of miles.
The ride home was also challenging, but because of physical and environmental reasons. I thought my legs were doing fine all day, but they were really tired apparently. Headwind nearly all the way, I struggled to pedal 12mph where I would normally be doing 16mph. The (stupid) light show at Fifth Third Ballpark is going up. I suspect my November commute will include part of that - watch for a unique Garmin map coming soon. (ha) I sort of "gave up" on trying to match or beat times from the morning about half way home, just too exhausted - it took me 10 minutes longer than usual to get home. Tired. Hungry. Sad. Just a lot of things weighing me down on this trip.
Greg LeMond once said "It never gets easier. You just go faster."
True for a cyclist, true for all of mankind.
No comments:
Post a Comment