I
had a lot on my plate. I was trying to
finish painting Jack’s old bed room, leaving enough time for a long ride. The temperatures were in the forties and
though it was windy, would be a perfect winter riding day. It was approaching 2 p.m. and I needed to get
the ride in before dinner at 5:30. Then
Jack walked in.
“Could
we practice the maneuverability like you said we could?” he asked.
He
was looking to get his driver’s license soon and needed to practice the
maneuverability portion. He had to throw
in that ‘like you said we could’ stuff as if I don’t honor my commitments even
when I have a golden opportunity to ride my bike outside.
“You
thought I was serious when I said that?”
C’mon Jack…I’ve been painting for hours and now I’ve got a chance to
ride,” I whined.
“Okay…we
can do it later,” he said with disappointment in his voice.
He
left the room and I thought about what a schmuck I was being. I went down to the garage and loaded five
trash cans and buckets into the van and went back and grabbed him.
“Let’s
do this thing. Do you have the
measurements for the placement of the cones that we’ll need?” I asked.
“Really? You have time?”
“I
said I’d do it and I almost sometimes do what I say,” I replied.
We
were practicing with the minivan. He
figured if he could do it with the biggest vehicle, he could do it with any
vehicle. And he did pretty well. On about 20 attempts, he only clipped the
pails four times. For a first time out,
that was rather impressive. It takes a
few times through to figure out what approach you’re going to take…leaning on
the mirrors, using the windows or a combination of the two. I did it myself a couple of times to see if I
could offer some advice that would help him.
I did…and I told him…but as so much advice that came my way from my
parents when I was his age, he half-listened.
“Can
I take the test this week?” he asked as we drove home.
“I’m
thinking you might want to come back a couple of more times and make sure you
can nail it. You’ve got until the end of
March before your temps expire and you don’t want to have to take it twice,” I
said.
Once
back home, I quickly changed into my riding gear. I had just enough time to get in a 2-hour
ride though I was struggling with what to wear.
I decided to go with my riding gloves and no hat, but put back-ups in
the pockets of my riding shirt. I wore
tights though I didn’t think I’d need them.
Riding
with the new cassette took some getting used to. I pretty much know what gear I’m going to
ride on a familiar course from experience, but the new cassette changes all
that. I’d increased my available gears
from 14 to 18 and they offered more range for better climbing. Since there were more gears, there was less
difference between them so I found myself in the wrong gear on a couple of
occasions as I was climbing hills. In combination
with a strong wind, I found myself going slower than usual, but loving the
smoothness of the rehabbed UB Express.
I’d
thought I’d have plenty of daylight and I would have if it had been sunny, but
with overcast skies, car lights were coming on during the last 30 minutes of my
ride…an indicator that I’m out too long.
I rode into the park to climb up ‘road closed’, but found it covered in
ice and snow at about the halfway point.
I was forced to reverse my course and take a different, longer route
home and it was then that I realized my fingers and toes were getting too
cold. I pulled off the cycling gloves
and threw on my isotoners for the final 20 minutes of the ride.
Holly
was preparing chicken and dumplings for dinner, so I put together a smoothie to
help me combat the urge to overeat those delicious, fatty calories. It worked as I stuck to a single helping and
skipped dessert. As calorie
burning/fitness days go, it was a good one.
Bike duration: Two hours and 5 minutes.
Training Heart
Rate: 120 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 1775.
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