5 More Miles to 1000 - Euphoric Riding Has Returned

Willamette River, Hawthorne Bridge from Eastbank Esplanade

Even though my morning commute was in the rain, I totally loved being on the bike. Over the weekend, I did a couple of tiny fine-tunes and was anxious to give them a test ride. The rain was somewhat light, so it really did not bother me. I am so thrilled riding the SUB these days. With the recent changes of tires, brake adjustment and all of that, the bike rides so much faster than back when I started my daily commute. I am really amazed and love riding the SUB even more.

I saw one other cyclist out this morning and I rolled up to him at the 50th and Lincoln signal light. He glanced both ways and heading on through the red. In contrast, I sat and waited. I thought about the reasons, I thought about the justifications I have seen from others. I felt perturbed because they do make justifications and have created their "logical" rationales. My perturbedness comes because why don't they just say, "Because I felt like it." I mean, just be honest really, because that is all running a red is, a personal choice.

Oh, and I got the green when the guy was about 3-1/2 blocks up and by the light at 39th I actually caught him and rolled past. I suppose that means he saved 4 blocks worth of time? Not sure. Anyway, like I said, why don't they just say, "because"?


Downtown from the Eastbank Esplanade

The sun came out this afternoon, though the wind was blowing a bit and temps were not super warm. After my picture-taking pace of warming up along the esplanade I picked up the pace up my Clay-Harrsion-Lincoln route. I am starting to feel close to what my old riding memory is - if that even makes any sense. My riding has brought back memories of my long ago riding, the happy comfort, the euphoria of constantly improving my riding skills, the pride of accomplishing a particular riding goal/riding event goal, the happy place of being in control of my riding. I am feeling those feelings again, that's pretty cool.

Still amazed at how many miles we consume just going back and forth to work. Tomorrow, I'll top 1000 miles across 73 commutes and I live only 6 miles from work. If I had not been tracking I would have guessed a lot lower number.