On my own

In the immortal words of Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, this morning I was . . . "on my own, this wasn't how it was supposed to be".   With the boys' schedules as crazy as they are at the end of the school year, it's been each man for himself (so to speak) in terms of training for the ride.  Aaron is usually willing to go with me, but there just hasn't been many opportunities between activities and weather (I refuse to go out in the rain voluntarily!).  So, after they took off for school this morning, I set off on a ride with my goal being at least 10 miles. 

And this time, I had new toys!  My old seat ended up being held together with duct tape after last year's ride, so I'm breaking the new one in.  So far, so good.  During one of last year's storms after we had parked for the day, my bike got knocked over and my mirror got bent into some unusable shape.  The new one isn't as cool as the Orange Crush bottlecap, but it's functional.  And finally, the new gloves to replace the pair we left in a diner in Owosso after an extraordinarily grumpy morning ride.  All seemed to have fit in on the ride today pretty well.



I started out toward Bankers to catch the PALM route going from there into town.  I rode it backward last time I went out, and decided to really see how it's going to feel in a few weeks.  Oh boy.  It's a gentle, steady, uphill most of the way into Hillsdale.  The perk being that there is an ice cream shop once you're in town.  Aaron and I will have our work cut out for us on that section.  I have a feeling that our motto for his days of the ride will be "slow and steady win the race!".  Shortly after I started, I realized I hadn't fixed my toolbag yet and had left it at home.  I realized this when my seat started swiveling around.  Hm, not good.  I finger tightened it a couple of times and hoped for the best.  I made it home with no major catastrophes, but that bag is getting on the bike this week!

Today ended up being 11.3 miles.  I'm hoping for another couple of rides this week.  They are calling for a rainy weekend, so I don't know how that is going to end up.  With me working most of next week, I'm thinking I might have Jeff drop me off at the hospital in the morning with my bike, and I'll just ride home.  That would make for a few mandatory short rides if nothing else.  It sure can't hurt!