More Rambling

Now that I've given up my weekday commuting rides, I'm finding that longer rides of 30-35 miles tire me out so I can't do much afterwards. I'm feeling some pain and strain in my tendons and bursa, not muscles or joints. I'm not sure if I'm just out of shape, or if this is arthritis or what is vaguely described as "fibromyalgia." Anyway, it seems better to just take shorter one-to-two hour rides of 15-20 miles three or four times a week, instead of pushing to increase my distances. But it is nice to get going fast enough to get my heart rate up and huff-and-puff a bit. Feels good to get my lungs full of oxygen.

It rained a little on this Sunday ride, and I was forced to take about three detours from the route I meant to ride. First was for a bad car wreck at the railway crossing on Slater Road. No train was involved, but the road was blocked by aid cars and police directing traffic to turn off to LaBounty Drive, which has been blocked off for construction projects most of the summer. I hoped I could squeak through on a bicycle, but no luck, I had to ride across the Slater Road freeway overpass, the one with the dangerous roundabouts where I crashed and tore up my elbow a few summers back. Rather than ride through with vehicle traffic, I crossed the overpass on the wrong side of the road, facing on-coming cars. This turned out to be even more risky, because the white paint stripes marking the bike lane have worn off and cars were cutting very close to the edge of the road. Then out of nervousness I turned off too soon and ended up riding on the north-bound freeway entrance for a couple hundred feet, before realizing my mistake, pulling a U-turn across the lane and going on to the roundabout at the Pacific Hwy. crossing. The pavement here is still cracked, pot-holed and thick with gravel and debris but I made it through and got home safe and with no fresh scars.

So it was an invigorating little jaunt that got my heart beating fast. I am looking forward to riding more in the cooler September weather.