“Ride #58: Guilty Conscience”

My best motivations in life come from knowing that I'm doing something good, or significant, or at least interesting. They don't have to be "really good" or "really significant" or "really interesting", but my best motivations are positive.

Cycling, especially this year, has had a couple of positive impetusses behind it. First, I'm getting back into shape by losing the extra weight I'd put on in the last year (er, four years), reigniting my metabolism, and drastically improving my metabolism. Second, I've found some comaraderie with other cyclists for the first time in my life: until this year I've only ridden alone, but now I can ride with a group that enjoys the sport as much as I do, once a week.

OK, that was a really big setup for a reall small point, which is that yesterday's ride was motivated mainly by guilt. I hadn't ridden in a couple of days, for no reason other than being tired and "distracted" by the rest of my life. I take that back, it was a good reason - the very best reason - but it screwed up my training regimen something fierce.

Sunday afternoon I realized that my legs had stopped aching - entirely - for the first time in months. I don't enjoy the ache, of course, but it at least reminds me that I've been true to my goals this year.

It was a pretty good ride, though, and the second longest of the year, just slightly behind #44.

I almost overdid it yesterday, and so I have to take a day off before another half century tomorrow night. That ride may be cancelled, though, because the temps are supposed to be in the upper 90's with humidity also hovering near 100%. Ouch. If it's too hot then perhaps I'll just do a training ride. We'll see, I probably won't be able to resist riding with the group if they don't cancel it.

Stats: 54.81 miles (88.24 km) in 169' 23" for an average speed of 19.41 mph (31.25 kph).