Life, Is Still, In The Way

Yes, at the most inopportune time’s life is still jumping up and popping me in the face. I have always been a big believer that timing is everything and with every passing day it is proven more true.

I am involved in a group that is planning a state wide school safety conference. I had expected more assistance from the group that placed me there. I’m sure you know how those things work out. It goes along with the multitude of state agencies and organizations that have taken this undertaking. I was hoping for a cooperative, sharing of ideas, from all of the separate agencies that put their individual conferences on every year. Yea, that was really going to happen. What does this have to do with Bicycling you ask? The amazing amount of stress relief, which can be credited to bicycling. But then with what I am enduring right now the cycling is not even beginning to scratch the surface.

This brings me back to the timing and life getting in the way. I was expecting to be back into a good riding routine and popping out close to a hundred miles a week by the middle of last month. Spring has been a beautiful time to ride in Colorado. This spring, we received our winter. It has snowed, multiple times, stayed cold, windy, all those stupid Mother Nature things that I can not seem to deal with, especially when I’m not into a solid routine yet. Then add the pre mentioned stress. We have had some great riding days, don’t get me wrong, but that is where the timing thing comes into play. My son’s and I have enjoyed beautiful, calm, sunny weather as we have driven to basketball practices. Why just yesterday we commented on the 70 degree temperature and the amount of cyclist out as we were shuffling between three different games. It was Mothers day which is why there were only three. By the time we came home, the wind woke up and the overcast skies with the threat of a storm rolled in. It is predicted to dump a foot of snow sometimes tomorrow. This morning hit 50 before nine am. I was going for a ride.

I grabbed the bag of new tubes I had just bought at Performance Cycle last week to fix my flat front tire. As a side note I discovered that if you ride very fast and make very gentle turns you can get at least 12 miles on a front tire going flat. Back to Performance Cycle. I know from experience, doing small parts and clothing business with them for years, that what you buy from them is not necessary what’s in the box when you go to use it. I was sitting in the front room pulling small pieces of glass out of my flat front tire then opened one of the new “True Goo” self sealing tube (side note #2, “True Goo” tubes don’t plug up the stems as easy as “Slime” tubes do.) and discovered that it had a shrader valve and not the presta the salesman got for me, yes my fault. A quick check of the other “True Goo” tubes and they were the same. I jumped in the car, drove the seven miles to Performance, twenty minutes one way with the morning traffic. But alas, the timing thing again comes to play, and I arrived fifty minutes before they opened. I figured I would just go home and throw in one of the other non-Goo tubes I bought and change to Goo the next time. It is sticker season you know. I went home, less traffic going east, put in the new tube, threw on my shorts and a jersey while I attempted to ignore the whistling wind threw the screens on my windows. I grabbed the wheel all ready to go went into the garage and watched my garage door bow in and out with the force of the wind and hoped the door did not get jerked off. Results, I’m back in front of this dam computer banging out this smattering of nonsense.

I did get some rides in, in April not many and not far but did bring up my average speed to the mid thirteen mph. Even a thirteen point three on a twenty two mile loop. So all has not been lost, speeds to look forward to and as the lovely Ms. Neff pointed out in her comment, which I agree with completely, I can not give up the fun and the exhilarating workout bicycling gives me.



I also managed to sign up my older son and I for the Greenwood Goose Chase. If you are local take a look at their web site, goosechase.org. This is fun and just a daily ride with a few hundred of your closest strangers.

More on the Goose Chase and the positive things I have seen on my rides so far this year, later this week.

Ride Safe, But Ride, More important Be Careful Out There.

“G”