Monday, May 24, 2010

Lovely Evening

When we lived in Missouri, my Dad used to say you can tell a happy jogger by the number of bugs in his/her teeth. Tonight, I went for my longest ride so far-not so very far, but considering that this is only my 2nd ride and training hasn’t started yet, I’m feeling all right about the distance. 5.16 miles. It took me a little less than half an hour and my legs feel a little like jelly, but really not too bad.

It was an absolutely beautiful evening, with no traffic as I rode past horses, quail and dogs. I was enjoying the lovely scenery when I was jolted out of my thoughts and felt and heard bugs smacking into my face, helmet and windbreaker. I am so glad I had my sunglasses on!

I remembered to unclip my shoes from my pedals before I came to a stop, and I’m getting a little faster clipping them in. I’m learning how it feels when the cleat is in the right spot on the pedal, and then I listen for and feel the “click”. I also experimented with shifting gears a little bit and got a better feel for how those work. One other thing I noticed. There were times that I felt like I was sort of plodding along and realized that I wasn’t taking advantage of the full range of leg motion on the bike. When I did take advantage of that, I felt like I was flying, even though compared to most, I was probably going really slowly. But when I got home, I had a smile on my face and-what’s that? Eeeeeew! There’s a bug in my teeth!

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