Brrrr - What Happened to Spring?

Lately, the temps, once again, feel on the cold side, more winter like than spring. We are suppose to be getting more rain, and Sunday overnight we did get some. Fortunately for my commute in bound was dry, though to be sure I rain weared up. (The picture here was taken on my way home and the clouds really caught my attention. Downtown seemed really small against the clouds.)

The SUB did great! The new position of the shifters was very successful and has been the best of all my experimentations. Since riding the SUB over a month ago, I did need some adjustment - my two bikes ride so differently. I felt a little slow, but I suppose that is to be expected given the SUB weighs over 5 pounds more and the tires have significantly more rolling resistance than my teeny skinny road bike. The cool thing was I found I was using the higher gears - that certainly boosted the confidence that all this riding has been paying off.

After making some mental notes of needed minor adjustments to my fit on the SUB, I settled in to "on on the bike" mode. The morning air while cool, felt good, and worked into my pedal rhythm, almost like cruise control. Speaking of rhythm, not only is the muscle memory coming back, I find the connection with the bike quite euphoric. The feeling I have as I shift oh so much here, a itty bit there as I "float" around the obstacles, road islands and turn left or right. In those moments, the bike is truly an extension and less a vehicle of transportation. I practice the lessons of nature as I have watched streams and rivers flow naturally, adapting, shifting to the landscape, weaving here and there effortlessly, endlessly.

All too soon, I arrive at my destination as time is the one thing not on my mind when on the bike. Maybe that is one of joys for me. At work, driving, at home trying to get so much done time is always on my mind, time is in control. On the bike, time disappears, even when I need to be somewhere at a given time, once I am rolling time is gone. For the first time, my travel times are amazingly consistent, quite unlike when I am trying to get somewhere by car. Car travel is also under the control of time - is it rush hour, how many red lights before I get through the intersection, did I pick an uncrowded route? Maybe bike travel transform one to be in each pedal moment, in each location you are currently at. In contrast, in the car we have been trained to focus on getting there - the sooner, the better.