31st ride - 6/7/15

I went out and rode early this morning. After doing my traditional early Sunday morning jaunt to Meijer (where I get one of their cream-filled Long Johns with chocolate icing; a tradition dating back 30 years to when I lived in Okemos, beginning my doctorate at MSU), I set out for my ride at about 7:15, and did 2 round trips on the Lohr-Textile Greenway, down to Woodland Dr. in the northern fringe of Saline, for a total ride of 11.8 miles in an hour and 17 minutes.

REFLECTION

As I think back to 2013, when I began riding (and loved it, doing over 1800 miles between March and the end of September), I believe that one of the things I loved most about it was the "call of the open road" (though that sounds a bit overly romantic). I rode very frequently to Saline, numerous times to Dexter, and occasionally even to Chelsea.

At this point, I certainly concede that the trike is much safer for me. It seems a bit confining to be limited to paths, walks, and that one subdivision, mostly close to home although I will occasionally travel a bit further with it, like yesterday. This morning I had wanted to ride down to Saline, a trip I can make completely on sidewalks. But the problem I encountered with the derailleur recently has me currently employing a more conservative approach to where I ride, trying now for the most part to avoid sidewalks as well as roads. We'll see how it shakes out eventually. And really, I am so predominantly happy and grateful to be able to return to riding at all, that it seems pretty petty for me to chafe under this restriction.