I sighed dejectedly at our lunch stop. “I'm really out of shape.” A wiser rider reminded me that it's relative. Few of my peers would be out on a bicycle today, even fewer pedaling up a relentlessly steep hill. [We tackled it from the “easy” side. That's relative, too.]
I slipped off the back almost immediately. No riders were in sight long before I reached the base of the climb.
I heard some wild turkeys. I admired the rushing flow of the creek. I listened to the buzzing of hundreds of bees, somewhere nearby. I watched a doe, watching me.
I struggled. I paid for yesterday. My legs had not recovered. On the last long steep section, I surrendered. I walked.
For the day, 30 miles with some 2,220 feet of climbing; for the week, 86 miles. Looking back, I haven't biked this much in a single week since last September.
And now I really must go to sleep.
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Hicks is hella hard. Don't forget that most of your fellow Merkans were watching TV or 'facebooking' while you tackled the climb. You went out and challenged yourself to be healthy and hard, and you did okay: be proud.
ReplyDelete-- Alison, who slept 10 hours last night after moving dirt for 5 hours as a volunteer trailworker