By last Saturday I was desperate. No biking since April 3. The explanation I heard on the radio was that this year March had 61 days. I tried to think that maybe we just traded two weeks in March with two weeks in April. It wasn't working. Since I couldn't bike, I went to a 5 hour gardening class by Earthworks Garden in Detroit. Even that had to be held mostly inside. On my way home, I passed two twenty year old women riding bikes with very under inflated tires. I have a bike pump in my car, so I rolled down my window to tell them that I could pump up their tires. Now think about this from their point of view. While riding by the Cass Corridor, a guy in a car asks you whether he can pump up your tires. What could you expect their response to be? They live there. They let me pump up their tires. One of the bikes hadn't been out since last fall. I told them my sad story: no biking. They sympathized and said that riding with air in their tires was a lot easier.
Sunday it was sunny. Cold, but sunny. Windy, but sunny. I bent the 50 degree rule and went out for a ride. I arranged it so that I went into the wind at the start so that I could gauge how far I could go. I rode through neighborhoods so that the houses could provide some windbreak. I was able to get 20 miles in and it wasn't too bad.
On Tuesday, my normal biking day with my buddies, it was sunny and it got into the 60's. It was pretty pleasant. Should I wear tights? (I've been told that professional bike riders wear something over their knees until it gets into the 70's. It helps their knee joints.) Nah. It's warm and the sun is shining. I took a rain jacket because there was some rain in the west, but I didn't put it on. One thing about where I bike (Detroit and southeastern Michigan): while there are no hills, there is wind. We started out with the wind. Then some clouds rolled in and the temperature started going down. By the time I turned into the wind to come back, I had the rain jacket on and I was cold. Where were my tights? By the end of the ride, the temperature was in the low 50's and the wind was a steady 15-20 mph and another lesson was learned.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I just did another ride. I'm not in this years Palm, I'm having knee replacement May 7. But I have done the last two Palms and loved them. I did all the extra miles, and did my first century in 2005 on the Palm. I'm reading these posts and realize how much I am going to miss it. Next year, I plan to be back.
Post a Comment