Relative Something

Okay, so it’s now day 3 of the bike trip. If it wasn’t obvious, I need to tell you that I am describing the basics of our trip, before it has actually happened. The posts this week were written last week and saved in queue for my daily readers. As per my usual routine, I take a break from posting for the days I am on the trip. I try to get off the electronic grid as much as possible for this vacation, yet I sneak in a visit to nearby establishments that might have a Stanley Cup hockey game (or World Cup Soccer every 4th year) on for viewing.

I hope to capture the highlights in my hand-written journal that I like to scribe when I settle into my tent for the night. I get to that after I spend a few precious minutes tickling the strings of my travel guitar that spends the night in the tent with me.

Anyway, back to day-3… Since it is Monday, it finally feels genuinely like being on vacation. If all goes according to plan, we will have spent the night tenting in Superior. Today we are riding to Bayfield, where we get to spend 2-nights camped in the same location. It is always a treat to not need to get up early and pack the dew-covered tent for one day out of the week.

We are on the road again. This is what it looks like to ride the Jaunt with Jim… It’s a picture from our 2008 trip. It is really a treat to ride with so many friends.

It feels like the trip starts on Friday night, because that is when we gather to camp in the town where we park our cars. The riding begins on Saturday morning. Full of anticipation, we are ready to leave our routines behind for a week and lose ourselves to riding the roads; this year,  in northern Wisconsin.

Our group numbers somewhere between 150 to 175 participants, with a shared love of cycling long distances. This ain’t no fundraiser. We ride for the adventure.

This morning, it all lies before us. I’ll try to take notes and capture the highlights for you. I’ll tell all in about a week, after we get back home and I get to sleep in a bed again.

Yesterday afternoon, the universe generously offered me a wake up call, free of any physical harm. I am wide awake to the message. On my bicycle commute home from the day-job, I ended up inches from becoming enmeshed in the front grill of a tricked-out Jeep.

Sure, Gary told me to be safe, as I left the building. Of course, I acknowledged I would.

I wasn’t.

I had fallen into an over-confident focus on my own intentions, neglecting to sufficiently estimate what those around me might possibly do. For all I know, my luck may have been with the fact that the driver of the Jeep did estimate what I might do, allowing himself to react in the nick of time. I am grateful he wasn’t distracted by anything at the moment he needed to hit the brakes and slide short of making impact with my startled self.

He had his turn signal on. I glanced left, saw his signal indicating he was turning right, then I glanced right and saw I had a short window, so I jumped on the pedals to cross the lanes to turn left.

In the world centered on me, his turn signal meant he would turn onto the road I was leaving. In reality, I was on a secondary road, very close to the intersection of a primary boulevard. He had no intention of turning at the little road I was on, he was indicating he would turn up ahead at the (now obvious to me) controlled intersection.

It is a good thing, when reminders that we aren’t the center of the universe arrive with no bruises beyond our ego.

I was so sure that I was safe by making good decisions, that I fell into a spell of neglecting to make good decisions.

Yes, I am now wide awake. I will be giving renewed energy toward anticipating what the actions will be that drivers around me might, or might not, take.

Sure, it’s June again, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have to live every day as if someone will be inspecting my home every time I step out the door. And it doesn’t mean I don’t have to work Saturdays at the day-job. Business is about as strong as I have seen it and our production schedule is maxed out. All hands on deck busy. So, I am on the clock today.

I will make the best of the situation and ride my bike to work. Maybe I will have energy afterwards to take a long route home and add extra miles. One thing I have re-verified, after riding to work for the last two days of the work-week: any muscle development I have accomplished by walking a half-hour everyday, has been of minimal help in pedaling my bike up hills. Holy cow, am I out of cycling shape. It’s either that or my tires have developed an increased resistance to rolling. Maybe my brakes are dragging.

I wish it didn’t have anything to do with trying to lug my heavy butt up those inclines. However, on the bright side, a heavy rider moves faster on the down-hill side of the slopes. Weeeeee!

One thing that has afflicted me in the increasing years of my 5th decade of life is, my get-up-and-go for facing hills, rain, or cold while cycling has declined dramatically. I’ve grown soft. Especially when alone. Having another rider around to distract me does wonders. Well, distract me and also trigger that urge to be competitive. I can’t help but try harder when there is someone else present. To a degree, anyway. I was passed on the way to work yesterday morning and the guy’s legs were a lot longer, and noticeably younger than mine. He sped off so fast, I didn’t have time to develop the urge to think about trying to keep up with him.

I had a nice surprise on the way home, Thursday. I was leaving work around 5 p.m., at just about the worst time for car traffic to be heavy, with drivers ornery about anything obstructing their expeditious dash for home. At precisely the time I was intending to enter the busy 4-lane out of the driveway at the work place, I spotted a cyclist already navigating the route. I jumped at the chance to get on his wheel and hoped being a pair of riders would buy us a smidgen of increased respect for space on the road.

He turned shortly thereafter and I figured that was that. A couple of streets later, he showed up again, now behind me. Seems I had picked a shorter route. We struck up a conversation, and shared the road for a good portion of the ride, eventually introducing ourselves by name. He seems like a wonderful fellow, and helped the miles to dissolve like magic. With luck, we’ll connect again in the future. It’s not just the camaraderie that I value, but also the added confidence in traffic for being two, instead of one. Even if it is false-confidence (for not being valid) I will accept being fooled and enjoy the feeling.

Yesterday was another warm and sunny February day in Minnesota! I achieved my goal of getting out and doing a little cycling, but not before being totally surprised by a sudden twinge in my lower back. I was standing flat-footed and pulling a shirt on over my head, with one arm up in the air when I felt, *ping!* It literally felt like a disk burst and my spine compressed. Could it really be that obviously palpable? Seriously, there was a sensation of suddenly being shorter, or like I had just landed a little jump off of a step. I definitely and immediately recognized the location and tenor of the pain as similar to what led me to seek treatment back in May of last year. Doctors diagnosed me as experiencing the initial onset of degenerative disk disease.

The one blessing I have been graced by thus far is that I have not been having any pain down my legs. If there is a bulge, it doesn’t appear to be pressing on a nerve yet. Other than a dull ache in my lower back, I felt fine. It may have been an unwise decision, but I was getting dressed to go biking, so I decided to carry out my plan. If it was uncomfortable to ride, I could always turn back.

The crushed limestone trail that I chose to explore was about 30-40% snow-packed. Most of the areas on either side of the spots with snow were pretty muddy, so I was meandering all across the width of the trail, trying to pick the least messy route. Still, it was a very pleasant outing, my back didn’t really bother me, and I exchanged friendly greetings with the many other folks who were out enjoying the nice weather. I stopped by my brother-in-law’s house and had a nice visit with my nephew, Alec.

By the time I neared home, I was grateful for the early planning I had done to check the wind direction. I used that to determine which way I would head out and rode into the wind at the start, while I was fresh, so that it would be at my back upon my return. After 15 miles, I was ready to be done, because my body was tired. I have not ridden a bike for many months and my legs were not used to this level of exercise. My butt was not used to a saddle, either. Equally noticeable to my leg fatigue, the muscles in my shoulders and neck were telling me they were ready to be done.

Now the pain in my back is not so obvious, because it is mixed in with a lot of tired and stiff muscles. Before I showered after my ride, I made sure to do all of the exercises that were prescribed to me during the therapy for my back pain last summer. Guess who is going to get back (get it, “back”) into a routine of a therapeutic half-hour walk everyday again?