Partly relating to the ebb and flow of debris and such that I see along my routes, the various obstacles I encounter are almost always amusing in some form or another. Clearly, psychological obstacles exist at times… such as “There’s no way I’m going to ride in this weather” or “I can’t climb that hill one more time”. But in this case, I’m referring to the physical obstacles that alter the “normal” line.
Trains would be a good example, however there have been few encounters with trains the past couple weeks since I’ve been riding more or less parallel to the tracks. As of late, it’s been stuff like horse shit, roasted corn, freight boxes, shopping carts and the omnipresent fields of broken glass that have proven obstacle-like.
This past week has also proven to be an “obstacle” of sorts, with physical exhaustion playing a major role in my daily existence. I’m pretty sure that, yesterday, the only defining characteristic between zombies and myself was that I didn’t have the urge to eat human flesh. Otherwise, I was about as sluggish and braindead as one would imagine a zombie would be. Today I existed in delirium.
I got a flat this afternoon. However, G and I were in such good spirits that it barely registered as anything other than a “nice place to stop” (thanks to the view and unobstructed, warming sun). I’ll admit I was slightly irked that the first tube I tried wouldn’t inflate (faulty valve?), but I was very happy that I’d decided to carry a second tube with me earlier in the week.
I could swear there was something more that I wanted to say… profound, of course… but it seems as though it slipped away ninja-like. I’m sure I could go on about the dance moves I enacted in the saddle today, or the brutal headwinds over the past couple days, or the psychological aspects of the lunchtime group rides (which are competitive, to say the least)… but… not right now.
0 Responses to “Obstacles”