Boy…it doesn’t get any better than this….
After riding 466 miles last week, I hadn’t ridden since Saturday but I still didn’t know what to expect of my legs this morning. It didn’t take long to find out they were still pretty rubbery. Other than that, it was an absolutely fabulous morning to be out on the bike.
With the summer solstace just a few days away, when we pulled out of the driveway on the tandem just past 5:30, it was already pretty light. As the sun rose higher into the sky, it cast a golden glow on the fields and pastures. Coupled with a temperature of 61 degrees when we left the house, I consider this morning one of those special days where it truly is a blessing to be outdoors.
After so many miles on the single bike, the tandem felt big, heavy, and awkward to me. I managed to get into the wrong gear for the standing climb up that nasty grade starting up Turners, and on the way up the final hill out of Emerald Park, I was standing and abruptly sat down, resulting in a bone-jarring end to Pam’s standing climb. Hopefully, I’ll find my lost captain’s skills soon before Pam get’s upset with me.
Pam was a little grumpy as we started because Libby woke us up when she was getting ready for work at 3:20 this morning, but as the morning progressed, she seemed like she started enjoying herself more. I think she was getting caught up in the beauty as well.
I tried yesterday to get a new bottom bracket for the single, but the guys at the bike shop couldn’t figure out what I needed with out seeing the bike. I thought they would surely be able to look it up somewhere, so I hadn’t written down the model number or size, resulting in a wasted trip up Glenstone at lunch. When I got home last night, I just put the bike back together so I could ride it today, but I did at least write down the model number of the BB first. Riding it in this morning, it felt kind of like I was running a couple of gears higher than I was. That got me to wondering exactly how far across Oklahoma I rode with it dragging like that. It could be part of the reason that some parts of that ride felt a little hard to me.
By the time I get home tonight, I’ll have about 37 miles on my legs, and there has been some conversation about going for a ride this evening with Sam and Barbara. We’ll see what happens.
Edit…we did ride another 16 miles this evening with Sam and Barbara. We met them at Mentor and did the short loop. It was great to ride with them again…I don’t think we’ve ridden together since the last day of the Illinois trip last year. In addition to the great company, the evening was as gorgeous as this morning was. A perfect evening for a nice easy ride.
I ended up w/ 53 miles for the day.
God bless…
TW
