A Quick Ride on a Thursday Morning

There is malaise in the air.  Dave has barely ridden this week.  Dan has a summer cold and did not ride yesterday.  I was so fatigued yesterday that I took the day off the bike.  There were only six of us out this morning.  I almost stayed in bed.  My calorie restricted diet (1200-1400 net calories after the bike calories) makes the bike more of an effort.  Despite all this, I got out there and rode.  In fact, I was out early enough that I put in a little more than usual just getting to the Rusty Bridge.

It rained sometime early this morning and the roads were damp to downright wet (especially at the southern end of our route).  No one had installed fenders so there were times when the spray entered open mouths or flooded legs.  I can tell you that the water was warm.  We started at an easy pace, but gradually increased it so that by the time we finished this was one of the 4 fastest rides of the year.  This time I hung with the group and didn’t get dropped.

It was a lovely morning.  The nearly full moon danced with the early morning clouds as they skittered across the sky.  I love early dawn, as the world begins to wake and it emerges from dark shadows into ever greater detail.  It is a privilege to be able to witness this most mornings.  May I never take it for granted.

There were only four occasions when we had to adapt our riding for vehicle traffic.  I guess that is a pretty normal number for our rides.  One of those saw 6 bikes skidding to a stop as our ride leader only noticed the car as we entered the intersection.  It was a rather close call!

So it was a good morning.  I’ll need to adjust my attitude just a bit as I’m not really looking forward to a longer ride tomorrow.  I absolutely need to get a longer ride in … at least 57 miles in order to keep a streak going.  I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

This Ride: 23.6 miles
Malaria Campaign: 1,612.3 miles
Funds Pledged: $806.15
Contributed in support: $2,153.60

Total = $2,959.75