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Right.
As I write this the water is dripping down my forehead, off my nose and onto the keyboard. I can taste blood, I feel dizzy and I can't feel my shins. There's a trail of muddy footprints that lead from the back door to the desk and there's a good chance that my phone is full of rain.
I commuted on my bike today, the long way round, on my singlespeed.
It was sunny and threatening to turn into a perfect barbeque evening when I left work, for all of ten minutes. This was just about long enought for me to work my way out of town and into the countryside. Then the sky turned black and it rained. And the wind picked up, to the point where I had to pedal to keep making progress, downhill. The hills that would otherwise have been a bit of a stretch on the singlespeed required more gritting of teeth than I would previously have thought myself capable of. I absolutely soaked to the skin.
And I loved every second of it.
I've been off the bike for months, probably the best part of a year and a bit. Been out for the odd pootle about. I'd cite work, GF/family commitments, and just general knackeredness, but if I'm honest my heart just wasn't in it. I'd fallen out with my bike, I wasn't enjoying it. I've been steadily getting fatter and less fit every day, and although I've been watching this happen and getting more and more disgusted with myself, for some reason I've not been able to summon the motivation to do anything about it.
So I thought I'd start commuting again. Initially I said that I'd ride every day for a week, no excuses.
I'm not sure what it is, but there's something about being out on your own, in clothing inappropriate for the conditions, on the edge of what you think you can achieve, and doing what you set out to do in spike of everything, that seems to make everything else make sense.
OK, for now it's just a little loop that I barely used to break a sweat over, but the ride home tonight seems to have restored something that I've not been able to access for ages. I think I *heart* riding again.
I'll admit that I felt like raising my fist to the sky and unleashing some sort of primeval yell at the weather when I got back home, but I realised that would have been going too far.
That is all.
Cup of tea now I think
3/10
Edit: Its not a rant 🙂
good work fella
Cool!
Amen brother!
Riding bikes is great 🙂
Sounds like my ride last night. Started sunny & dusty, ended in torrential rain, proper shoe filling clothes soddening rain.
Ace!
@ Dangerboy: Congratulations, you've found it again & I can certainly relate to what you've said & felt.
I hope you keep at it mate, have all the freedom & fun you can on your bike. Soak it up!!! 😉
Good stuff! Thing is, that's real real-life, like what people used to do before air conditioning and central heating and cars and sofas and offices etc. battling the elements should be the norm!
Started commuting to work couple of months back was basically in the same situation as yourself
getting out on the bike was becoming once a week/fortnight/month thing,always seemed to be something
else cropped up (three kids are time consuming)
I now do 26 miles a day in all weathers and loving it, if truth be told i kinda prefer the pissing down rain especially on the route home
and it has made a massive difference when i go out on the trails it has really resparked my love of bikes
and restored my grin 😀
One of my favourite rides when I was in Morzine a few years back was when the heavens opened, the lifts got closed due to lightning and we had to ride the road to get back round the hill and down the valley.
Could hardly see through the rain but I was the fastest thing down the road, 2.5 super tackys on the road meant cars were slowing my down on the hairpin turns, off road shortcuts to pass them were just epic.
When the other guys turned up they looked miserable but I had a huge grin on my face. It's just great on the rare occasions when riding in the rain is fun 😀
[url= http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_weather.html ]http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_weather.html[/url]
Excellent!!! Good for you fella!!! I 'heart' riding in the summer when its still warm, but lashing down. Thought it was just me 😀
I thought this was going to be a post by Alex the Lion 🙂
Good stuff though, and I do know what you mean about inappropriate clothing - as long as you don't get proper chilled tho.
Looking forward to some wet weather riding this evening myself not a commute home but a couple of hours at the local DH track, that should get the blood pumping!