Thursday Thoughts: How we ride

Being a random collection of thoughts on the state of the bike in early Winter.

We who are devoted road riders are a bit like Mongol warriors.  We live on our bikes, as they did on their horses.  We don’t do so well walking, or dismounted.  In groups, we tend not so show a lot of order to our movements.  We are highly maneuverable, but individually, quite vulnerable.  In crowded situations we can break free and go just about anywhere we want.

It’s good to get into the woods again.  There is something amazing about rolling along a trail, and discovering little spots of magic.  Motor traffic and intersections are something we don’t have to worry about, and the noise volume is way down.  The “Stinky Trail” is a complete joy.  There are so many interesting and neat things about it.  One passes a bend and finds little touches.  I’d really like to do it in the snow.  Not a lot of snow, mind you, but it would be fun in a two inch blanket.

We are so fortunate to have the path network, here in Peachtree City.  It’s good to be jump on a bike and go anywhere in town, with little attention to motor vehicles.  Golf carts are becoming more of a problem.  They seem to proliferate with geometric speed.  On the other hand, Winter evening rides are a joy.  When it’s cold and dark, we cyclists own the paths.  We encounter only the occasional dog walker, and possibly only three or four carts in an hour of riding.

Stationary trainers and rollers can save one’s sanity.  I’ve logged already quite a few hours on the trainer this Fall.  I’ve just started the “Annual Humiliation” of recurrency work on the rollers.  I managed to disgrace myself completely for about a half hour.  By the end, I was staying on for five minutes.  Five wobbly minutes, but I’ll take it.  I might add, I worked up a delightful sweat doing it.

It’s time to embrace the cold.  Yes, we long for those long hot days of Summer, and we dream of the pleasant times to come.  But this is the time of their birthing.  Now we maintain, select, train, plan, and dream. 

Christmas is next week.  The year is about done.

Welcome Winter.