148th ride - 11/3/2015

On a brilliantly sunny fall morning (41°), I rode a round trip to Marsh Park again this morning. I was thinking I'd do 3 or 4, but once I got going I felt the call of composition pulling me back home. I may, however, do an additional ride this afternoon (I hope I do), but for now, I've done the 9.5 miles in 54 minutes.

Since Sunday afternoon, when I attended a lovely performance of the Requiem by John Rutter, a work I have both sung and conducted, I have wanted to start a large multi-movement choral work. I have done a lot of thinking about it, and making tentative plans—but I think now is the time to start sketching some of it out a little more concretely.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

On an absolutely gorgeous (summery) fall afternoon, with unbroken sunshine and a temperature of 77°, I rode another Marsh Park round trip, in 55 minutes (for a daily total of 19 miles in 1 hour and 49 minutes). I didn't realize it was that warm until I got out there, so I wore the sweatshirt ("St. Olaf College Dad") that I wore this morning, over a long-sleeved t-shirt. (The t-shirt was one I got when I was still running, and ran the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving Day 2008, finishing the 3.1-mile run on the North Campus of the University of Michigan, where I used to live during 1981–82, before Deb and I had children, in 30:39.) But it didn't take very long at all to come to the conclusion that I needed to remove the sweatshirt and leave it in the garage.