Photos From the Saddle

After two days of “rest”, my legs were itching for some miles. G had said he wasn’t going to ride this weekend—kids, wife and something or another. I’m going to have to talk to him about priorities. So I went out solo for what ended up being a pretty decent climbing loop.

My legs were there. The two days of rest had done their magic and I found myself hammering out a pace that would’ve made grandma proud, in all her biscuit-making glory. As I was flying through the park, I saw a couple of teens approaching the road ahead of me… as I neared them, the girl started yelling out “NINJA! Look, it’s a NINJA!!!” while pointing at me. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Spring is definitely knocking on the bathroom door, demanding its turn in the shower before school starts.

A couple years ago, there was a marketing campaign that thanked the various “elements” that made outdoors activities so enjoyable. There was stuff like “Thank you, rocks…” and “Thank you, snow…” and so on. There was also one that said “Thank you, asphalt…” This, of course, was a bit at odds with the general “save the outdoors” conservational message… y’know, since paving over stuff usually isn’t considered a good thing for the environment. The ad depicted a couple of roadies and what appeared to be a freakin’ beautiful stretch of road (clean, smooth, scenic and devoid of traffic… if only we could always ride in an advertisement world). I’ve always been amused by the ad’s dissonance.

However, yesterday I couldn’t help but echo the sentiment as I turned onto a mile-long stretch of new asphalt with a wide bike lane. The sun was out and traffic had dissipated. I sat up off the bars and just coasted, listening to the whir of the freewheel. In that moment, I was as content as one can get.