Saturday 18 October 2008

Whether the weather is fine

The weather at the moment is quite delightful for riding - not too hot, not too cold, not too windy and infrequent rain. I went out for a two hour jaunt earlier in the week, and had barely broken into a sweat by the time I returned home. It was not an easy ride, but the light wind and the balmy weather conspired to keep me dry and comfortable - which is such a nice change. The arctic winter gloves and the leggings have gone into storage, but it is still too early in the season to get paranoid about applying sunscreen. I'm developing a lovely cocky's tan - brown forearms, legs and face and a pasty pale body.

There is something to be said for riding in the nude.

Tomorrow looks good again. I know that I won't be up early enough for a group ride - they leave at 6.15am from a location that's about 20 minutes from home, which would mean getting up at oh-dark-hundred. Not a chance of doing that - not when I have a 95% chance of having to get up several times over the next few hours to feed or change one of the kids. I'll just potter out the door mid-morning, or when Monkey is having his afternoon nap, and cruise around the place in my usual solo mode. I do enjoy the company of a group ride - I've never met an uninteresting cyclist - but I'm so used to riding on my own that I find going out with a group of 10 or 20 to be somewhat restrictive. I like to go where the spirit takes me, not where the ride leader directs me to go.

I generally have no idea of where I am going to go when I leave the house. I just hit the first intersection and see where the road takes me. When you spend the week furiously commuting up and down the same stretch of road, there is a lot to be said for just meandering in random ways, and not worrying about being at a certain place at a certain time.

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