cycling
27
May 19
Happy Memorial Day
Below there’s a bit of a video from the end of a Saturday morning ride. I got in a good 34-miles before the day really warmed up.
I forgot to shoot video on the good part of this morning’s ride, the part with snappy pace and wide-open views, so you’re treated to the back-in-the-burbs “I’m ready to stop moving” part of the effort.
I spent the rest of Saturday just sitting in the recliner reading. It was great. This will make you think: nothing is probably ever as new as we think it is. This was a part of the state of things turning into the 20th century.
That’s from my office desk book. (As opposed to my bedstand book, my Kindle books, my car book or my office desk books, or the entire, and stuffed full, bookcase of Books-To-Read.) This is the one I read sections of when I need to take a break to read something in short installments. It’s a good book. Check it out.
21
May 19
The modes of locomotion
This month’s fill-up:
That’s a pretty decent price, after the grocery store points discount. And filling up every month or so is a lot better than doing it every Monday, or even more frequently, like the bad old days.
Naturally, after buying a tank full of gas, you go out for a short, 20-mile bike ride. It was 10 miles out and come back. I jumped out for a small lead at a stop sign and worked as hard as I could on the generally uphill progression. I was all proud, until I got to the appointed turnaround and The Yankee was just 20 yards behind me.
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“How’s your ride?” I asked.
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“Good, slow, but fine,” she said.
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I’d been working so hard. This was my first ride of the year which felt good — I’ve been nursing some aches and pains. The weather was delightfully mild and it was the best stretch of riding so far of the year. Slow, she says, because she’s so ridiculously strong.
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So we head back. I take the lead. There’s a train track running parallel to this country road we’re on. I can hear a train blasting its horn announcing itself at intersections to my right. Briefly, just in front of us and then behind us. If I hurry, I figured, I can safely beat it. I knew the intersection with the tracks, of course. It’s at a good clearing and it has great lights. No gates, but you can see off to the side enough to know whether you should jump the tracks or stop. I had an ear and eye off to the right and my legs and lungs were doing everything else. I beat the train. After the tracks, there’s a demanding little hill. One of those that you think shouldn’t hurt, but it can really do some damage. It can be an emotional ascent. I’ve seen it happen. Anyway, I topped that climb and The Yankee dropped me, hard and convincingly.
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So that explains my view the rest of the way back:
After, she said she was just read to be home. So clearly I have to ride better.
9
May 19
Let’s go ride bikes!
It was a brief ride, and I had to chase this machine down the whole time.
Chasing @LaurnSmith all over the place this evening. pic.twitter.com/acwse998ZL
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) May 9, 2019
“I look like I know what I’m doing in that one,” she says. But she doesn’t have to chase herself — just go with it — and she always looks pro.
