It's been three days since we completed our ride.
The tan lines and the bruises are already fading. I'm hoping the muscle tissue will not, but I know that is inevitable as life returns to 'normal'.
The children were sent off to their summer school programs this morning, and Mike and I went for another ride- a day ride, around town, just to see how it felt. We both struggled in the beginning of this ride to get into shape- training was nowhere near to what we hoped it would be- and now that we've ridden for 27 days, we're not quite ready to stop. This topic comes up quite a bit in our conversations recently- how do you continue the momentum, when so many stop lights and the traffic impedes the way?
We rode off on empty bikes with no real destination in mind, except knowing would be a loop, ending where we started, which was so different than how we have been riding together for the past 5,000+ miles. The bikes handle differently without the weight of the bags- it's harder to keep a line, the back tire wants to drift. I was concerned my shifter wasn't working properly, and then I realized I was in the highest gear- missing the weighted feeling pushing down on the pedals. I don't ride horses, but I imagine it would be how a pack horse would run when it wasn't carrying a load.
Riding in my backyard, the landscape seems so plain now- the hills I remember are flatter. The inclines are non-existent. Mike reminded me that we were going uphill oh-so-gradually, and I glance down at my speedometer reading 17mph, effortlessly going along. The downhills were fast, but not exhilarating like they were before, and certainly nothing like The Ride. On the trip, I could sense my speed within 2 miles per hour of a comfort zone- I didn't like to get too much above 30mph, but today that intuition was off, and I was still pedalling at 35mph, not grabbing my brakes. The challenge wasn't there today.
On this ride, there were no easy days, physically. Every day brought some sort of tough spot to push through. And that's pretty amazing to do that, every single day. I won't write about all of them, but I'll attempt to convey some of that in words another time.
