Finishing off yesterday's easy slice of half marathon pie, like a returning champion at a food eating contest, struck a line through another taper week on the calendar, and left me feeling refreshed & optimistic about today's cross training challenge. I received a new-to-me bicycle over the weekend (thanks Pete!), and was eagerly eyeing it up all Sunday with anticipation for a nice long ride on Monday's scheduled cross training session.
A sunny, yet brisk, 68°F day & a new bicycle led me on an adventure to Valley Green park (a long and winding stretch of public park that reaches out like an artery from the heart of Philadelphia to touch, ever so lovingly, the shoulder of the wide suburban sprawl. Edgar Allan Poe was even a noted fan of the area). It had been a long time since I was last there, even though in the past it has served as a staple of activity for walking, running, and even hiking*—it's an especially perfect path for HOT summer days, because it's such an oh so shady lane—yet, I've never biked there before. I suppose the main reason for that previous life omission is because I've never really had a bicycle before, at least not one tempered to take on the off-road elements of Forbidden Drive (that's really its name kids, no foolin').
Classy Covered Bridge!
I left home with thoughts of taking it easy on the ride, since I know all too well that I'm standing in the shadow of the colossus that is this weekend's 20 mile long run, but husbandry be damned, the day was just too nice to lend worry to such things as excess. Although I set out to ride no more than 14 miles (22.5km), I ended up pulling in a total of 20 miles (32km). I know this, because my sweet new ride has a fancy old odometer. I'm no longer confined to the preplanned routes of yesteryear, and because this bike is a hybrid (as opposed to the road bike I had been riding before**), I can finally follow fleeting whims and go off road for a bit of unpaved shenanigans.
I knew my last bicycle was a bit of a lemon, but didn't realize just how sour it was until today. Riding a bike with a frame that actually fit my height, being able to switch gears effortlessly, having pedals that aren't being held together with duct tape, and so forth, are all contributing factors to a relatively fear free jaunt through the forest road. For once, I could simply enjoy the ride with the confidence that less things were likely to go wrong.
Footnotes:
*I've even gone swimming there before. There was a cliff we used to jump off of into a portion of the Wissahickon creek, but this came to an abrupt end one day when a park ranger scolded us for going in the water. It was recently discovered (back then) that the water was carrying an abundance of organisms that were likely to invade our orifices and do bad things to our bodies. Those park rangers sure don't sugarcoat anything.
**By riding, I loosely mean hovering over a death machine watching highlight reels of my life flash before my eyes while clinging to handlebars that I had hoped would steer clear of the fear filled doom of each & every cycling endeavor.
No comments:
Post a Comment