Sunday, July 21, 2013

Out for a ride

Sunday.
Sun.
Warm winter day.

Me? Time to fit a quick ride in!

The previous weekend had been wet, busy, and no time to go for a bike ride. This weekend I was at a Wing Chun seminar on the Saturday and then Sunday I managed to get everything done in time to head off.

Normally I don't do anything less than a 50 kilometre ride on Ruby (2013 Specialized Ruby Comp Compact), but this weekend it was already well after 2 p.m. when I managed to go riding, and so I only got a 40 kilometre ride in. The temperature drops around 3 p.m., and when the sun is lower in the sky sun-strike becomes a risk -- one day, in the car, I saw a cyclist knocked off his bike because a driver was blinded by the sun.

I am not a fast cyclist, so I don't break any records out there...but I am the one you see giggling when she 'bolts' through an intersection! I love nothing more than getting up to the traffic lights and not having to un-clip before they turn green, and when that happens...I stand up in the pedals and sprint that bike, flying past the cars! It is deeply satisfying!

I am definitely getting fitter with the cycling, and when I put on the padded suit at Eskrima class I have found my endurance is much better!

Cycling is not just fun, and great exercise, it's time to just ride with my thoughts, sometimes I will be processing a problem, sometimes I will be thinking about my energy, and sometimes I will be thinking about the novel I am in the progress of writing. Yeah, I know, I am a writer, a fighter, and a biker.