riding through May....National Bike Month!!!

[ny biker]

I put the bike and all my gear in the car on Wednesday in case we had enough of a break from the seemingly-endless rain to go for a post-work ride. It didn't rain, but I just could not motivate myself to get out there. Left all the stuff in the car, maybe Thursday will be better. Well again it wasn't raining but I'm just done with the damp gloomy chill. And besides I was neglecting my strength training in favor of getting in shape for the TdC so I decided to hit the gym instead. Left all the bike stuff in the car again, just in case Friday was better. Sure enough it rained in the morning but then OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT BLUE STUFF I SEE OUTSIDE MY WINDOW IS IT THE SKY YES IT IS THE SKY HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH. So when I finished work I changed into my bike clothes -- short sleeve jersey with NO BASE LAYER woo hoo!! and headed to the community center where I like to start my evening hill rides.

It was a 75 degrees when I started. It was also almost 8 pm and the sun was about to set. So I packed a vest and arm warmers in the handlebar bag and wore my lightweight tights. They were more than I needed but they're covered with reflective stuff and besides I expected the temps to drop into the 60s soon.

The crazy thing is that after only a few miles I felt like turning back. I just wasn't into it. It's early May and I'm already burned out. So lesson learned, don't plan any more ambitious rides in the early spring that require lots of training and forcing myself to ride in crap weather. Anyway I rode on and realized I just didn't want to ride the hills. There's really no way to avoid them in the area where I was riding but I was able to change the route to skip a few hills and take less-steep alternatives to others. As I neared the flatter part at the end, I felt much better. I ended up riding 17 miles.

This morning I cleaned my bike. It was a mess after the wet roads of the TdC. So I gave the frame a thorough cleaning, wiped down the wheels, cleaned the impractical white bottle cages, cleaned and lubed the chain. The endless rainy gloom has now been washed away and banished to the past!

Tomorrow will be a long flat ride with the bike club that includes a stop at a strawberry festival. It should be breezy and cool but SUNNY. I'm really glad it will be mostly flat.

p.s. This was the sky outside my office window as sunshiny joy washed over the land.