Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

The rain has been hanging around the last couple of days, and since I'm not one to ride in the rain, the cycling hasn't been happening. Today, after attending my niece's graduation party and becoming agitated over a petty grievance I have concerning my family, all I kept thinking during the party was I have to get out to clear my head. Thankfully, when we left the party, the clouds and rain had moved east. I couldn't get home and clipped into the pedals fast enough. I have three brothers and two sisters. Being the fifth child of six along with liking being alone, I have never been especially close to any of my siblings. We get along alright, but years ago I realized my siblings just don't seem all that interested in keeping in touch, so I stopped trying to build lines of communication that seemed to go pretty much one way. Today, yet again, after arriving at my niece's party, I found out that most of my siblings were in town. The fact that they didn't feel...

Made some progress today with getting out of my slump. Initially I had planned a long ride, but the clouds didn't part the way the weather forecast said they would. The sun hid all day long yet again, keeping the temps cool yet again, and the wind came up yet again. I settled for a five mile barefoot run on the treadmill, which I'm very happy with as I can tell my feet are getting stronger and I just feel so happy while running barefoot. My mind wanders to all kinds of things rather than watching the seconds tick by, making the hour seem to slip by quickly. The legs don't feel like lead when I run without shoes. Instead, they feel light. This has done wonders for my mindset. I've never been so happy with running like I am now. One of the to-do's on my list for this in-between time of late spring not quite summer was to paint the boys' room. Hubby and I purchased the paint today. When the boys returned home from school, we cleaned out from under the beds, moved...

What to do today? Where to start? With nothing on the calendar, doing absolutely zip each day becomes easier and easier. With drizzle, 15 mph winds, and chilly 50's temps, actually leaving the house becomes less and less. Vegging out for hours upon hours in front of the TV becomes the must-do. The logical me quietly implores the lazy me to stop, to get a grip, to start all those projects planned before the end of the semester, all of those "fun" things just waiting until no more student papers and other work requirements blocked the way. So far, almost two weeks into summer break, not much no progress has been made with any of the projects. One thing I know about myself is I need deadlines. The problem with having summer projects and saying I want to have them completed by August 1 is there's no one on August 1 to whom I have to give the results, like a boss. It's just me. And I'm not going to fire me for not getting a summer project completed. Most likely,...

Went for a 21 mile ride today, later in the afternoon. Didn't push it. Didn't watch the computer. Just rode and enjoyed the scenery. Most of the fields are planted, the crops just beginning to peep above ground. The wind has quieted considerably since Sunday, making the ride seem especially easy. Having spent a huge amount of effort battling the wind on Sunday, I could feel some fatigue hanging around in the legs. Today's ride, though, wasn't about distance or speed. It was about being away from the city, away from the noise, away from all the have-to-do's. Blissful simplicity.

The weather forecast for the whole weekend was thunderstorms with lots of rain. I decided to take Friday off, thinking a rest day would be a good idea, and I swam yesterday due to the forecast. The storms never materialized Friday or Saturday, so I decided last night that if I woke up to sun, I was going to take off and ride. I plotted a 50 mile route before bed, checked the weather one last time, which showed storms moving in around 4 a.m., then nodded off with hopes the storms went north or south of us. At 7 a.m., I looked out my window to see sunny skies. Not a cloud floating by. Just after 7:30, I was on my way. For the next three hours and twenty-five minutes, I was riding through the countryside. By the time I reached the lake, the winds had come up, and they came up with a vengeance. Going north was the easy ride. Going any other direction put me in a battle against 20 mph winds, with gusts to 25. Part of the ride had the wind pushing me from the right side. With a light bike,...

The first ride with my tricked-out bike went smoothly . . . until I came to a stop at my destination and swung my leg over, throwing my flip-flop into the middle of the street. The dark-haired guy sitting in one of the window seats at the coffeehouse laughed. Yeah, real funny, Dude. Actually, it kinda was. I got to thinking what if a car had been going by. The driver would have been startled good by a brown flip-flop landing on the windshield. All in all, my new and improved commuter bike is awesome. One issue I'm going to have to get used to is the added weight. Each basket weighs 5.5 pounds. The rack weighs around a pound. That's like having an infant sitting behind me. Then, when something is in one basket but not the other, the balance is off. Just like having an infant sitting behind me, wiggling around in the seat. I'm looking at these things as good problems, those kind that help a person in one way or another. Not only will my legs get stronger with having to deal...

I really didn't plan for the seat/rack and baskets color matching. The rear rack is on along with two baskets. I am now ready to roll and if the need arises that I must carry something , I should be able to do so. Unless it's a piano. Can't carry a piano. Or a tune for that matter. Yesterday the rear rack arrived. With Hubby's help, it was attached in no time. Today, the baskets were deposited at my front door. I thought I had ordered one basket, but inside the box I found two. Bonus! In a matter of minutes, both were attached to the rear rack. As I took my tricked out ride for a spin, I asked Hubby if I looked geeky. He shook his head, giving me a sideways glance, saying, "Nawwwww. Not at all." I think he was making fun of me.

After a lot of reading and further thought about running, I decided to give barefoot running a go. One of the first suggestions for easing into barefoot running is to take it slow, build a base to toughen up the feet. I started about a week ago with a treadmill session of walking one mile and running one mile. The second session I ran two miles and walked a quarter mile. This evening, I ran 3.6 miles and walked a mile. By 4.5 miles, the balls of my feet were yelling at me to stop. While I wasn't running fast by any means at 5 mph, a 12 minute mile, I did feel as if I could have continued (if the feet hadn't been saying enough) for quite some time. This has never, ever happened to me before. For almost two years I've had this love/hate relationship with running, Mostly hate. My legs usually feel like lead when I run, which makes me dread putting on the shoes and heading out. No matter what I tried, the old legs just didn't like having to go faster than a brisk walk. Th...

The new rear rack and basket should be at my door sometime this week. I'm hoping I ordered the correct rack, that it will fit my bike. I checked all the details and everything seems to align. Maybe as of Wednesday or Thursday I'll be able to carry groceries and other stuff more easily. With the bike equipped, the last step is figuring out how to ride in any kind of weather. Living in a state where the weather can vary drastically from one day to the next, I haven't learned the best way to deal with rain and snow. I don't mind the wind. I don't mind the cold. I don't mind the heat. Rain and snow, though, make me want to just curl up on the couch with a good book when I should be riding. They also make me grab the car keys if I want to go somewhere. I really want to get past the ease of driving in less than ideal conditions. There's nothing better than figuring out each day how much gas I didn't use, how much money I saved not driving, how many calories ...

Try to cut that thief! No more cable lock for me. JRA of One Speed: Go! finally convinced me a cable lock just isn't enough. And since I'm riding nearly everyday, to work or the coffeehouse or wherever I need to get to, I thought it time to be sure my ride would still be waiting for me whenever I was finished with what I was doing. Even though my bike isn't all that fancy or expensive, I have a certain amount of affection for it and would miss it terribly if it all the sudden went missing. So now I'm equipped with a headlight, a taillight, a saddlebag containing an extra tube, an air pump, and a bottle holder. All  I need at this point is a rear rack. I usually carry a backpack, but with the increasing heat, I'm arriving at my destinations with a very sweaty back. Not a great look. I'm hoping a rear rack takes care of that problem. Along with the bike commuting, I've been getting in some mileage on the new road bike. This week I'm close to 100 mi...

My Illinois countryside.    

The clouds and rain have moved on. Finally. The wind we've been dealing with since last week no doubt pushed both the clouds and the rain away. The garden soil is now cracking from dryness, but thankfully both of my water barrels are full, so I can water liberally without feeling like I'm wasting money watering my plants. The two lettuces, the spinach, the peas, and the herbs are sprouting. So far, nothing is showing for the potatoes. I haven't grown potatoes in many, many years, so I won't be too surprised if I end up with none at the end of the season. They're a little different from other plants, and I'm not sure I got them in the right way. All in all, the garden is coming along. Retractable Clothesline My new retractable clothesline is in place, allowing me to stretch it over the garden plantings to dry clothes. Once they're dry, I can release the cord, and it will wind itself in its housing, out of the way when not needed. My hope is to not use th...

After church, then after lunch, Hubby and I suited up for a ride. With the sun shining, which at this point is a real treat after all the gray, clouds, and rain, I said there was no way I was going to let the day pass without getting a long ride in. Hubby rode with me to the edge of town, about 6 miles. He even kept going another quarter mile, until the wind hit us full force at a good 20 mph. At that point, he smiled and turned around, telling me to have fun. I was determined to get 40 miles in, so I continued on into the wind for another 14 miles. For this part of the ride, my average speed hovered between 14 and 16 mph, depending on windbreaks. And there weren't many of those with the fields still bare after a long winter's sleep. At the top of one small rise, I stopped to take in a field blanketed in purple. I tried to take a picture with my phone, but the camera just couldn't do the field justice, so I just stood there, admiring the scene. On the way back, I cringe...

The end of the semester is here. Deep breath. Slowly let it out. Relief. And like semesters past, my mind, my body, my spirit have sunk into a cool, dark place where I just exist, not really participating in what's going on around me. After a week or so of this, I'm able to pull myself up and fall back into step with life, slowly moving forward again. My moving forward started this morning with beginning Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. I chose this book as the summer read for the honors students I'll be teaching in the fall. Though I'm not all that far into the book, I'm fascinated by it. I'm really looking forward to spending more time with the book later today and over the weekend. My next step in moving forward is to clean: my home office, the closet in the home office, and my bedroom/bath. All have been terribly neglected the last few weeks (okay, months is much more accurate). While I'm not a clean freak, I do like my spaces to be tidy and orderly,...

I arrived at the Sullivan Sprint Tri with the idea that I was going to participate but stay with Hubby for the entire event. With the whole calf issue, I had decided it best to take it easy and not risk further aggravating the sore calf. Hubby, though, kept insisting I compete at my usual intensity. I began to wiffle-waffle about the whole thing. After much debate, I did a few down and backs in the pool, with no adverse effects, and decided I would go ahead with my original plan to enter the pool at my designated time and see what happened from there. What happened was I finished the swim just fine. The calf cooperated the entire time, and even though my mind wasn't in a good spot before or during the swim, I muddled through and finished a minute faster than I did last year. I arrived at my bike and began getting ready for the ride, thinking I was going to wait for Hubby at this point as I had promised him I would stay with him the entire time. While I was pulling shorts on over ...