I finally was able to make my first foray onto the road and logged my first 22 miles of the 2006 cycling season. Last week the weather was gorgeous, but I was flat on my butt at home with a cold/flu bug that made its way through the family. It made me miss work on Monday and Tuesday and left me dragging myself through the rest of the week. I had hopes of riding on Saturday when the weather was again supposed to be upper 40's. It turned out to be fairly warm, but overcast with a wind of 20+ mph out of the southeast that bit pretty hard, so I opted to not push my luck with my health and stayed home. Yesterday, I decided to not look at the forecast and to wait to see how things felt after church to decide whether I would ride or not. Things seemed favorable, if still windy, so I decided to go.
The first five miles of any season are some of the hardest of the year for me as the first burn kicks into the legs and the mind starts to wonder just how much fitness I've lost in my winter's hibernation. I never know exactly how far to ride the first time out and know I won't really know what I'm capable of until I'm well into it. To add to the challenge this year, I was out in 20+ mph winds on the first ride, which I don't think I've ever done before on ride #1.
The first five miles out of town in pretty much any direction are in town for me if I leave from the house. Most of that is on city streets, not the bike trail which is a drag. It's a nice trail system, but doesn't easily lend itself to country riding like the Cardinal Greenway in Marion did. There, I'd only have a handful of blocks to get onto the trail and another handful to get onto the country roads after several miles of trail riding. Here, I can spend a fair amount of time and energy to get onto the trail, only to ride a short distance before I have to get off again to ride a good distance to head out of town. I like riding the trail, but it its a different kind of riding than the long, hilly, windy efforts you get riding outside of town which are far more rewarding.
I hit the roads northeast of town and headed to Brandon. This is one of the areas around here that I've found with a few hills to train on. I rode through some nice areas with some good roads, a regular rate of traffic and some good hills. I realized that I was in a little trouble as I'd be fighting a WNW wind a good part of the way back, but I didn't want to cut things short and still don't know the roads well enough to adjust my route with any confidence. I decided I'd just have to slug it out and stick to the plan. The ride back was a bit painful with a few good hills going into the wind that left me in first gear a lot earlier than I would have preferred. It burned a bit, but I managed to fight through it to keep going. Once I was in town it was a lot easier with houses and trees breaking to wind for me a bit. I still found myself crawling at times to gain any progress, but I finally rolled into the driveway for what I would consider a successful completion of ride #1.
I don't know what kind of rhythm I'll settle into for riding this year, but I doubt very seriously that I'll get close to last year's totals. My work schedule and sleep schedule run counter to my natural tendencies and I won't be able to do most of my riding before my family is awake. I also have a job this year where last summer was freed up significantly while I looked for work. Since I won't be able to ride as early in the day this year, I'll also have to contend with a lot more wind and traffic which could make it a little more tedious as well. I am on the job hunt again and hope that maybe by the end of the summer new employment will improve my lot all the way around. The way it could positively impact my riding would merely be a beautiful bonus.
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