Absent-minded
My bicycle came out of the shop on Tuesday, fitted with lights, a new lock and a bike computer along with replacements of some of the more standard parts. It looked almost shiny and new. I didn’t end up riding it that day. The Scientist and I managed to get it into the car by removing the front tire (which is easily removed). I was emotionally frazzled and not really up to dealing with rush hour traffic while riding. I don’t tend to ride on main roads much but I would have needed to be quite alert just to cross the heavy traffic.
I was finally able to take it out for a spin today after rainy skies cleared up a bit. I still had the threat of rain but it was likely to be only brief showers and I was willing to risk that. I had a letter I needed to post so gathered that along with my mini-backpack and I was off. I found it really tough to ride today and felt like my legs would hardly move. I had on my heart rate monitor (for exercise) and I was reaching 150 bpm pretty easily. I decided that lack of activity the past couple days had put me a bit out of shape. Anyway, I managed to ride about 2 kilometers before I realised I wasn’t wearing my bike helmet. I have never done that since I’ve lived here. I never noticed my hair getting wet or how the strong winds were blowing my hair around more than usual. Once I noticed my mistake, I felt kind of naked. I phoned the scientist and asked him to bring my helmet for me, which he did reasonably quickly. It was lucky I was mostly riding on bike/foot paths because helmets are compulsory on road bikes.
I reached my destination, took care of the letter then went to the library for a long while before returning home. The return ride was also rough. I got home and over the course of the 1.5 hours, I had burned off over 500 calories which was considerably higher than usual for me considering that much of this time was spent in the library relaxing. Later this evening, I was feeling really sore and very tired. Lack of sleep was the excuse for tiredness but I thought maybe I was coming down with the flu or something. It only occurred to me later on that the strong winds from the wild weather were the real culprit. I was probably doing pretty well to keep the pace I was keeping.
As for the the feel of my “new” bike…it was a very pleasant ride and lacked many of the bumps and jolts of recent times. It reminded me of how nice it was to ride when I first got the bike a few years ago. I haven’t had a chance to try out the lights yet but I am sure that will happen soon.
