Ride # 40: Spring is a Dog From Hell

Looks can be deceiving
Tuesday afternoon, 3:15, gray, dour
45 degrees

Sure, the snow is gone. Hasn't hailed or sleeted in a while. But it does not feel like spring. I paraphrase the classic Bukowski book for the title of this post. And it's true. This year. Snarl and spit, fume and pout. Where's the love? Where's the lamb? It's almost May and on only one ride so far have I been able to wear short sleeves.

The good news is that I did 22.5 miles today and now these several hours later my back and hip don't feel bad. In fact, everything feels better than yesterday. I stretched before and after riding today. I also moved my seat forward a quarter of an inch or so before setting out. And twice in the first few miles I stopped and adjusted the seat height, raising it each time. I'd lowered it too much after Sunday's ride and I felt squat and bunched as soon as I got going today, like a teenager too big for his bike. On the second adjustment though I nailed it. Or so it felt for the rest of the ride.

The thing is, I want the pedal stroke distributed mostly through my quads and calves; but at the height I'd had my seat at, the burden fell on the narrow band that stretches from the glutes around back, over the hip arrow, down across the groin valley and onto the plain of quad. Now it felt better, I could feel the thighs working, could feel the calves doing their share; I did not feel an excess strain at the bridge over the river thigh.

When I felt good after the first few miles I thought "With the Niceness!" and hoped for the best. Turned out to be a reassuring ride. No need to turn back.

Gray, overcast, very much a  forbidding day. Poe-like. Cold. 45 degrees (7 C). Nothing soft or happy. Just a craven, crow-spackled, elocution of spat.

A year or so ago I might not have gone out on a grim day like today. But that was before riding through the winter and riding through all the various extreme weather situations those months presented. A moderately T.S. Eliotian cruel April day did not displease me.

Wondering about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse

Yet there are unmistakable signs of spring. Wan green buds. The first probing shoots of growth in the debris-ridden roadside; fern thickles, vine tendrils, poison ivy nipples. Nubbins of green on sumac stalks lining stonewalled fields. Occasional blooming shrubs and ornamentals.

Shadsythia

Ride Summary: 22.5 miles (36 K), 13.4 mph (slow, cautious in the sand and in the rough conditions of the western hills; oh, and yeah, the HILLS). I wore full winter garb today: under armor, zippered fleece, thick outer Pearl Izumi limonade winter thick top. 43 degrees when I got back. Not a beam of sun all day.

Have started to track my rides at strava.com. More on that later.

Parting Shot

The road to Hobbiton
East Farthing