Back on the Roadbike

Everything changes when you don't ride. The past two weeks, I couldn't, mostly because of cold, icy, or snowy conditions. Every morning I found myself getting into the car, driving to the train, and then walking the last half mile to the office. I brought fewer sandwiches for lunch, had to remind myself to eat less at dinner (not always successfully), and gradually also started to feel strange things in my legs and back. Stuff not being used. Psychologically, I wasn't in such bad shape, because I always knew that not riding was the sensible thing to do. On most days, it wasn't even a question. On some others I would still conclude that the possible consequences of going down in the dark on some black ice just were too ominous. It has happened to me before, after all. As a more recent reminder, a fellow commuter here in town, a committed rider if there ever was one (I've written about her before) went down on some wet leaves earlier this fall, breaking her shoulder in three places. Surgery isn't an option, and neither is a cast, but meanwhile the pieces still need to grow back together, my friend needs to put up with a lot of pain, all the while wondering if she'll ever regain full use of that important body part. So I drove, and I read on the train, and I walked more stairs in my building than normally, and I put up with the crowds on the trains, and I dutifully cleaned the car off in the morning, and then again at night. Thankfully, there were the speedskating sessions on Monday mornings, and last Sunday I managed a little more than an hour on my old mountain bike, partly on slushy trails, partly on mostly clean roads and bikepaths. The past two days, thaw really took over and so this morning I happily did the 21 mile Abcoude, or hooky, loop on the Klein. Looks like I'll add some more miles to the annual total tomorrow. Just three more weeks to go to pad that very important number.