I'm only at 744km riding my bicycle outside so far this year. Realistically, I can easily knock off 256km between now and the end of the month, particularly so if my commuter bike ever comes home from the bike shop. It's just over 45km round trip to work, after all.
And you'd think that when I hit my 1000km mark, I'd crack open a beer and smugly proclaim that now, *now* I'm finally ready to go on a bike tour. However, a more likely scenario is that, if there is any time left, I'll decide that I need to do some long rides with loaded panniers.
It's all about the bike riding lately. I went to Stockholm for work, and the conference was super interesting, I love Scandinavia, the people were great. And yet, every day, I looked at the weather in southern Ontario and had a pang of "today would be a good day to ride my bike". Then, I finally got Bike Friday going, but I had to go to Regina. And while Regina is not on my love-list of places, some of the people I got to see there most definitely are. But still with the checking the weather report and longing for the bike. On Wednesday, the Bossman had us over for Thai food and drinks to celebrate many work-related things and it was lovely, but I was keenly aware of the prime bike opportunity I was missing. And then this weekend was supposed to be the first paddling trip of the season, an event that usually fills me with more glee than ... um ... anything? and yet, when it was rained out, my first thought was good! I can get a long ride in!
The long ride didn't happen. Yesterday, the forecast was for rain, rain and more rain, starting around noon. I took off into the overcast day, figuring I could probably crank out 50km before it got soggy - and I almost did. at 41km, I had to stop for a freight train north of Milton. Some of these freight trains, they take a long time - they're going super slow because they're leaving town, and they are long. This freight train consisted of well over 100 train cars (I stopped counting), and many of those were filled with shiny new cars. Meanwhile, I straddled my bike, and it started to rain. And it kept raining, hard, for the 15km I had left to go. It was head down and push, but with rain being whipped into my face with a sudden headwind, I did wonder what all the longing for the bike had been about while I was away.
Today, I had big goals. I wanted to go 125km. I put three liters of water into my bike bag, and I made sandwiches, and I tossed in extra granola bars. Also, some movies I needed to return, figuring my ride would take me through Guelph at some point. At 8:30, I started riding. By 8:35, I was back home, because I was so very very cold and it was so damn windy. I napped for an hour, and then I put on a warmer long undershirt and a wind jacket and bike gloves and tried again. And it sucked, hard. Not only was the headwind very very cold, but it gusted up to 50km/hr. And since I must ride into the wind first, I had little choice on which direction to go (northwest), and that direction is net elevation gain. So I was pedaling into this fierce cold wind, going uphill, and thinking, how could this suck more? And that's when I realized I hadn't selected my road carefully enough, because the pavement petered out into freshly graded soft gravel. And there was no fricking way I was turning around and giving up even a kilometer of the hard-won into the wind advance.
I gave up on the 125km. I decided that if I got to Guelph and managed to drop off those movies, I would call it a success. And if I didn't have that much lesser, much more manageable goal in mind, I would have turned around before the odometer added 10km.
Only upside was that I had tailwind for the way home. Though the wind had shifted, and only half the ride was tailwind - the other half was make you wobble on your bike sidewind. And since a good long stretch of the sidewind direction was super exposed, I picked a road I'd never cycled before because it looked like it had trees along it. It also petered out into fresh gravel. Wellington County is not nearly as good as Halton for paved roads, is my conclusion.
Good thing I had all that water for a 46km ride, no?
Also, I think Bike Friday is memorable. I met three cyclists at one point, and I heard one proclaim to another "there's that girl". Without knowing any further, I conclude that they have seen my pretty pretty little bike before, with me on it, an discussed its very coolness - thus making me "that" girl not "some" girl.
(Most cyclists around here are the hard core racing variety who would refer to the bike riding as "training", in head to toe spandex, hunched waaaay over their bikes with their skinny skinny tires, and while the vast majority grin and wave and say hi, I mostly see their skinny skinny asses as the whoooooosh on by me. This does not bother me. Because I also frequently see their skinny spandexed asses bent over fixing flats from time to time. I like my gravel munching, regular clothes wearing, upright sitting biking even if I am slow. How slow? My fastest ride for anything over 40km or so has averaged a measly 24.5km/hr. There are hills, ok?)
Yeah. I need a life. Or a hobby that involves actually spending time with other people again.
Next weekend, I go paddling. Even if the weather is conducive to a 125km ride. I think. Maybe. I could use muscles other than my legs. The size and shape of my calves is starting to freak me out.