Woodlands, 56 km. The phrase "weather pattern" exists for a reason. For the past few Sundays, the sun burns in the morning and afternoon. By mid afternoon, the sun pulls over a dark quilt of clouds and snores like thunder. Then rain pours down for hours, so a night ride would be way after dinner and close to bed time. So I don't cycle yesterday, because I didn't get on with it and chose to do (or not do) other things. Can you beat the weather? Well yes, but you'll get soaking wet. No fun. But no cycling is also no fun. And cycling on Monday, a working day, means more traffic dodging. Trade-offs.
Over the weekend, I saw someone who got on with it. A skateboarder with a full-face helmet. Perched on steep slope. With a cape. When he scoots off in full flight, he crouches down. When traffic nears, he stands up, stretches out his arms to unfurl his cape like a drag chute. Then he goes back up for more. He takes care to pack his chute around his ankles before he sets off. He also scans the road for cars. His neck depends on it.
As for me, my "achievements" are:
a) adjusting my saddle using a spirit level. I've been sliding down; what I'd thought was level wasn't, due to parallax error. Errors get us down. Is your spirit level?
b) changing the worn-out cleats on my shoes later in the day, and getting them just so by using a marker (redundant) and matching (precision) the old indentations with the new cleats before tightening them. For greater pedaling efficiency. So I can go at breakneck speed at breathe-taking distances. Soon :p
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