Early Morning

Here’s an irony.  I work in a bike shop.  I really really have to scramble to find time to ride.

One of the way I deal with that particular irony is the early morning ride.  During the more clement months (the ones in which the over-night low can be depended upon to stay above 45 degrees F) I get up early and go for a ride.  Some of these rides are all out training rides.  Some (most) are for the enjoyment, to get my head cleared, and to get my body moving.

At the beginning of the morning rides I depend on routine.  The bike is there, the helmet here, and so on.  Thought is difficult for me this soon after rising.  I start out with a muzzie head, and that is fine.  I am content to not-think.

It’s almost always dark when I start these morning rides.  Lately, the sun isn’t up when I get back home.  Still, I see things.

There is the owl I hear regularly as I’m nearing home.  The other day she swept down and flew along just over me, gliding along just above and ahead of me as I rolled down the neighborhood street.  Startled me pretty good, but the sight was amazing.

Lately, I’ve been dodging a fair number of our thoroughly urbanized deer population.  I see some folks out doing their early morning run, the occasional other cyclist, the odd individual starting off for an early day of work, or towing a boat for a mid-week lake trip.  Sometimes I startle a yard-dog.  Sometimes the dog returns the favor.

At this early hour the world is quiet, traffic slight, the air is fresh, the world is calm.  I seem to glide through this pre-dawn world.  My headlights pick out the road in front of me, but I cannot see the bike beneath me.

For most of the ride, I do not look at my computer, do not consult for distance, speed, or time.  I know my surroundings well enough.  I will not embark on a route that will take me farther than I have time for.  I can read the time from the sky above.  When there are stars, they give me clock enough.  If it is cloudy, the increasing light level tells me when it is time to be moving homeward.

By the third part of these early morning excursions, my mind is alive again.  I am thinking, planning, full of ideas and inspirations.  On most days, I would prefer to keep riding, but the duties of the day preclude that.  It is enough.  I will return here again.