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I’m back.

Yes, my existence is all about a lot of things, but riding and getting healthy and making my legs take me places instead of sitting around thinking about stuff is what I am now focused on.  The medical emergency of my recent past, is in my recent past.  It has been locked up until it can be of use at a later time.  Maybe I’ll be able to use the memory as an incentive to do something new and/or impossible.  Or maybe I’ll help someone get their PSA blood test done so they don’t have to go through what I did.  Hmm, have you checked YOUR PSA?  If you haven’t, do it.  It could save your life!  Anyway, my rides have always helped me deal with what’s going on.  Stuff like projects, life changing news, family situations, work….all sorts of stuff gets ironed out on these rides.  And I have got to say, I have missed the rides!

Since you are here for a visit, you most likely know I am a bicycling fanatic and charting a fresh hundred miles a week is fairly average for me.  Commuting to work, riding with friends, and challenging myself can really add up.  If you didn’t know this before, now you do.

And this week, different than the past 36 weeks, I logged a couple of rides.  Tuesday, July 12th, the ride was an up-and-back to Beal’s Point at Folsom Lake.  This is a ride of 40 miles and has little tiny hills to climb when you get close to the Lake.  Today, July 14th, the journey was a round trip from my house to downtown Sacramento.  The ride is pancake-flat and winds on for just about 40 miles as well.  Saturday, the plan is to get another 20 miles making the total mileage for the week a nice round hunskie (100).

And just in case anyone is reading this and wondering how David feels after today’s ride, it is like this; OUCH.  The legs complained the entire way home.  I told them to SHUT UP (just like Jens Voigt does, but he’s a pro and his legs probably listen).  The lower back was guilty of noises too, and the neck is just about able to look up at the ceiling again.  But you know what was giving out the most nonsense?  My butt.  Man-o-man, from the time I got on the bike to the time I called it done….that thing was hurtin’ for certain!  Which is really unusual.  Back about 9 months ago, when I last rode, I could sit on a 2×4 for 100 miles without too much complaining.  But that was then…..

It amazes me how the body gets used to doing something physically demanding.  I used to build fences and decks, and a trellis every now and again.  In the heat of Summer it was nothing to begin a job at 7:30 a.m. and pound away until dinner.  Yes, I was seriously hot at the end of a day and yes, I was tired and a little sore too.  But it was never too much for my body and I was ready for more the next day.  Amazing.

And riding a bicycle is like that too.  Your arms get used to holding you up for hours on end, your neck takes care of all the bobble-headed things your skull goes through – including holding up a helmet all day.  Your legs go hard when they must, and your lungs burn and your heart beats so hard it feels as if it could come out of your chest!  And so on and so on.

Well, today’s ride today was almost too much and I could have easily quit at mile 30.  There are a couple of shortcuts a rider can take which will easily cut 10 miles off this ride.  Anytime I am riding late and need to make up time I take it, so it’s not like it’s some confusing route or something.  But quitting just ain’t my bag and I really need these miles.  And some of these so-called base miles best be a challenge if I am going to ride the way I want to!

Which is what today’s ride was all about: the challenge.  And I did it.  And I liked it!

Seriously; I’m back.  Hello out there!

PS I’m not bald anymore, I still have really short hair, but I’m not bald.  It’s not that I didn’t like the look, it just takes too much time!  To those of you who shave your head, I tip my hat to you…..you look mahvelous!