I am having a hard time on the ol’ bicycle. Saturday Zach and I rode 360 and about all I can say for that is that I ended up back where I started. There was a completely awful head wind all the way back home (15-25mph with gusts to 35. woo.) but I couldn’t make it up the hill to 2244 on the way out even with the tailwind. On top of that, though I didn’t know it at the time, the velcro strap from my under-seat bag was busy chewing through my nice cycling shorts from the company. A fact I didn’t notice until I was getting ready to leave for an after work ride with Kate today and she pointed it out. The ride was nice but on the way home we had just crossed a little neighborhood street in Clarksville and my left calf decided that was enough and stopped working. Just cramped right up into an awful little ball of hate. Also, Kate dropped her bike chain-ring first onto her leg helping me with mine after I had to pull over.
I’m just going to camp out here at work and wait for some stuff to go quiet for the evening so I can fix something. Then it’s back home for dinner and sleeps. Life goes on. So that’s enough bitching for now. The 360 ride is really pretty. Once you get past 2244 there’s a beautiful view of central Austin off to the East. It’s also nice and straight with only a couple of dangerous bits so I will probably try to do it again soon. I need to build endurance for the ride to work in May so being able to do that thing would be a good step. Bill and I went and rode on Sunday morning and that was fun. There were a lot of people out and it was chilly but not very windy and we came down Far West which was new for me. Then, this afternoon Kate and I rode from work up to the Shoal Creek loop and rode a few laps with some people from her club. I hadn’t ridden with a group before and it feels insane because everyone is so close together. We rode back through the neighborhoods West of Lamar and there are some beautiful houses back in there. Of course, the internet tells me that one of them is worth 8.9 million dollars so I don’t need to worry about living there but it doesn’t hurt to ride by.
So, bicycling hard, etc. but for as much as it makes me feel like I can’t do anything right it’s still fun. I guess I’ll keep it up. Also, I’m going to take some scissors and a lighter to the end of the velcro straps. They’re too long and I will not have them eat the other pair of shorts I just got today in the mail.
Thanks for not mentioning that I almost died yesterday going up the hill on Steck after Mopac. :) I’m looking forward to Wednesday. But if you’re going to keep riding every day, I’m going to have to start hauling my bike to work to have any hope of catching up.
I wasn’t intending to ride every day. It just happened to work out like that. My leg still hurts so I’m going to try to take it easy tomorrow. Wednesday should be fun.