It's been hard lately to get out on the road in the morning. It seems to me that mid-January through February is often a difficult season for training. The weather has been cold, rainy, windy or some combintation of the above all week, resulting in a daily battle with common sense. It's only my intense dislike for the indoor trainer that gets me on the road some mornings. Well, that and my equally intense dislike for being dropped like a rock by guys who ride trainers for two hours a day. When I left the office yesterday evening the latest cold front was just coming through. We were under a tornado watch, and up here on the roof of the Tidewater Building the wind sounded like the opening scenes of The Wizard of Oz. Rain was pelting the sliding glass doors on the north side and water was leaking onto the carpet as usual. I stepped over the wet spots, turned out the lights, and made for the garage and a warm dry ride home in the car.
This morning the temperature was down to 40F and there was a brutal north wind blowing. It was coming from exactly the opposite direction as the brutal south wind we battled yesterday. The turnout up on the levee was slim, and after a couple of people turned around early there were only three of us left. We fought our way out to the parish line, made our usual u-turn, and were finally rewarded, at least for a while, with a nice tailwind. For a Friday, it was a harder ride than usual, but as they say, "you gotta make hay when the sun shines." Indeed, by the time we had made the turnaround the rising sun was fully in our eyes and the sky was clear and blue - a welcome sight after yesterday's flat grey.
Flying back down the bike path with the wind at our backs and a clear blue sky ahead I remembered why I like to ride my bike. An hour later as I rolled the commuter into the bike room at work I noticed a shiny new bell on a bright red cruiser bike with absurdely wide handlebars. It said "I love my bike."
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