I seemingly had a hundred things to do on Tuesday but managed to fit in a 27 mile loop square of dirt roads north of the Cul-De-Sac Shack. I was geeked to have got out, but not entirely geeked with how I felt. Well, for at least half the ride.
After an adult life spent sitting at a desk pushing pixels, and two legs with poor circulation due to multiple blood clots in the past, a day on my feet at the shop often has them swelling up a bit and feeling like two wet sandbags covered in shit when I get home (give me a break, I’m 47 now!). By Tuesday morning the swelling had gone down, but they still felt heavy and tired. Still, after a shit ride on Sunday and no ride on Monday I wanted to get outside.
The temps were so much better than Sunday’s heat-fueled debacle, and I was happy to be in the saddle for sure. Sadly, those still heavy legs, a bit of a headwind at the ride’s start, and some soft recently brined roads had me thinking that my “me time” would have been best spent walking in the woods. I also have a theory that my body was missing the extra 800 beer calories that I normally would have taken in post-work on Monday and was revolting. Perhaps my body runs on IPA? Of course, all of that may have been my imagination.
I rode on, noticing a flock of turkey’s here, a deer munching on soybean plants there, and cows mooing and munching over there.
Eventually, that headwind turned into a tolerable crosswind and then into a wonderful tailwind. That was just the thing I needed to not be forced into taking paved roads and another ride of shame back home.
One disappointing thing with the ride was that on Monday the farmers must have been working double-time and now nearly all the wheat fields north of town are now mowed down and harvested. I still have the fall bean and corn harvests to hopefully get some pics of, so all is not lost. Hopefully, I’ll get come combine love in the coming days.
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NOTE: Not that it matters to anyone but me, but this post was supposed to publish early this morning. However just as I was about to finish up, I got sidetracked taking care of an email server issue associated with a website I do volunteer design/management for. After an hour spent taking care of that, I needed to get out ASAP. So, the Tuesday post is publishing after the Wednesday ride has already been completed and Wednesday’s post will publish on Thursday. Probably.
Later.