Learning

OK, so I'm not a very active blogger, sue me. Since I lst posted we had our second child, Shayla Michelle. I'll post a pic if I feel like it (read=lazy). Work is good, health is good, wife is grouchy, oh well.

Bout to turn this into a cycling blog. I started riding my bike again. I do that every year when the Tour de France starts, but I have stuck to it pretty good this time. Still riding my old Mongoose hard-tail MTB. I hope to get an actual road bike at some point, but I want to spend $1500 for one, natch. So, I will start with shoes and pedals for the MTB. If I am still riding in November, maybe I can convince the wife to let me buy a bike.

Just finished Ten Points and am half-way through Heft on Wheels. Wow, excellent books. They are now my inspirations for riding. Trying to find that epiphany of suffering they both talk about. Plus Ten Points reminds just how lucky I am to have Zachary. Spending a lot of nights curled up next to hi after he falls asleep listening to him breathe and twitch. He is everything in the world to me. Shayla is getting there, but newborns (she is 10 weeks) just aren't as much fun.

Learned something yesterday. I kept reading about all this suffering the cyclists go through, but I haven't felt it yet. Part of the problem is Gainesville is very flat, no hills. So I went out after work yesterday and just rode. No certain distance or particular cadence, just rode. I discovered Millhopper Road has some great little hills plus a bike-lane. So I just kept pedaling until I reached the nature park on the other side of I-75. I was amazed I rode that far without even thinking about it. Best of all, I thought about nothing, not work, not life, not family, just breathed and pedaled. 'Course I had to ride back, which was mostly crawling and I really hurt when I got done, but it felt really good. My legs hurt all evening and I was exhausted but felt good.

Here's the neat part: I figured I would be too wiped out today to do anything, but I'm sitting around a little sore, thinking I want to do it again. So I am probably going to go hurt myself again this afternoon. I can't believe I actually want to go again. Maybe I am a cyclist a little bit.