1st ride of the year - Monday, January 14, 2019


MILEAGE for 2019: 241.7

 I last rode outside on December 17. Right after that, I had extensive repairs done to my trike—a new chain, a new derailleur, and a new cassette of gears—and then cold weather set in, and I discontinued outside rides. I joked to the small group of men I meet with at our church early this morning that the forecast was for sunny skies with temperatures over 30° this afternoon—and since that seemed practically tropical in contrast to our weather in recent weeks, I hoped to bundle up and ride outside.

 Indeed I was able to do just that—not a long ride, but I did a single round trip to Marsh Park, augmented by loops on Bicentennial Pkwy/Wilson Rd, and Interfirst Drive. The sunshine was brilliant, and though it was just 30° when I began at 12:30, when I finished it had climbed clear up to 34°! I was able to get away with my cloth gloves as opposed to my thicker winter ones, which are much more cumbersome I did deign to wear my winter coat, as well. And best of all, it was almost entirely calm—just a negligible breeze of a few miles per hour. And having basically an entirely new drive train made it ride much more smoothly than it had in quite some time (throughout 2018, I believe).

 As I rode, I listened to my "Witty" playlist with my phone on Spotify. My cousin, Richard Harris, is an exemplary trumpeter of jazz and 'standards." (So far as I know, he does not play classical repertoire.) He has issued a number of breathtaking recordings, so I have created a playlist named after the childhood nickname by which I knew him. Though he goes by Rich nowadays, throughout our boyhood I only knew him as Witty—which came about when he was one time cooking with my Grandma Fida, and made some remark that elicited from her the reply, "Oh, Richard, you're so witty!" It stuck.

 Though I've not ridden outside in almost a month before today, I've at least been able to be relatively disciplined about going to LA Fitness and riding on the stationary bike. This has allowed my mileage for the year to get started off nicely—most days I ride 20 miles, and have only missed one day so far this year.

 At any rate, my ride ended up being 12.7 miles, in 1:29.

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