and I just got out of bed. My alarm went off to let me know my time for sleeping was done and now I had to make good on my commitment to get back to doing what I need to do. In the dark I find my cycling clothes and get dressed by feel. I head downstairs and grab my Garmin Forerunner, take a long drink of water and get my last stick of gum from the pack. You might wonder why I would get a stick of gum. Well its pretty dry here in the desert southwest and a friend of mine (thanks Mary!) told me how chewing a stick of gum can keep your mouth from going as dry as the desert while you are working out.
I head into the garage and pump up my tires to the recommended max of 83 PSI, grab my helmet and gloves, switch on my Garmin and open the garage door. I roll out to the end of the driveway where I turn on my head and taillight, put on my helmet, slip my hands into my gloves and get ready to go. I notice that while its not exactly cool, its not baking hot either A check of the temp shows its 79 degrees.
I mount my bike, hit start on my Garmin and off I go. My goal for the morning is just to put in some relatively easy miles to ease back into the regular riding routine. The first lap around my 1 mile loop is uneventful aside from the number of cars driving on the street. Normally I'll see 2 or 3 cars in an entire morning ride. This morning, everyone seems to be up trying to beat the heat as there were 5 cars in my first lap. Not a lot by any means, but each is its own cause for concern as I know they aren't expecting anyone riding at this time of day.
I get into a pretty good rhythm for the first 3 or 4 laps, but I notice that my left knee is starting to hurt. Not sure what that's about but I keep on going. At lap 5 I realize that only riding 10 miles in the last 6 weeks has taken a toll on my endurance and my legs are starting to feel it. I keep pushing, knowing that I'm not breaking any speed records but also knowing that all of the effort will make me stronger.
On lap 6 my hands are tingling on the bars. This is where I really start to understand how regular riding does condition your body. Laps 7 and 8 were my slowest and were work, but not insurmountable I decided a nice 8 mile ride was a good place to start on rolled into the driveway at the end of the 8th lap. Looking at my Garmin, I had travelled 8.28 miles in 37 minutes for a 13.3 mph pace. Not Bad.
This is the restart of getting myself into a better place physically.
Keep on riding!
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