Mysteries

I know from my running days that wearing long pants and extra layers slows me down. It holds true for bicycling too. I ride about 10 percent faster in shorts. Go figure. Today’s temperatures were in the 60s here in North Carolina. I don’t actual live in North Carolina but the climate here in the DC area is about the same a North Carolina’s ten years ago. I put the snow shovels away a week ago. It’s spring. Climate change is real, y’all.

I went for a long ride today. The 41 1/2 miles was my longest of the year and I could have easily tacked on another ten. All while riding 1 mile per hour faster than usual and while riding some nasty hills. My route took me from Mount Vernon across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Maryland. Once there I had a 0.8 mile climb to Oxon Hill Road. A couple of miles of level ground was followed by a steep plunge, with my max speed being something like 36 miles per hour by the not-advisable look-down-while-in-flight method. Eek.

I was headed to Fort Washington, a bona fide old timey 19th century fort. In addition to that fun descent I had a nice tailwind for most of the way. This helped as I made the two steep climbs to the fort. Dang, it’s hilly.

While on route, I came upon something you don’t see every day around these parts: a sheep farm with a llama. Yep, just 15 miles from the White House there’s a shaggy llama standing guard over some shaggy sheep (and a goat or two for good measure).

The return trip involved retracing my route down the hills from the fort and past the llama sighting location (my llama buddy and his wooly pals were nowhere to be seen). Of course, this was all into a strong headwind but I was in shorts and kept cruising along. Shorts!

I came to the big climb back up Oxon Hill. I had chosen The Tank for this adventure and it’s sheer mass and unforgiving gearing made the climbs into slogs, none more sloggy than Oxon Hill’s steep beast into a headwind.

I huffed and I puffed and I made it. Asthma, smasthma.

The other day I took The Mule out for a 30-mile spin. Afterwards my neck and back felt terrific. My neck is a medical mystery. Go figure. Oddly, I find that while I’m on the brake hoods on The Mule, my hands bear more weight than when I’m doing the same on The Tank. It seems to me that this should bother my neck and shoulders but it doesn’t. The Mule feels like and extension of my body.

So before leaving home today I took measurements of The Tank and The Mule. Based on this, I decided to slide the saddle back on The Tank and see what happens. As it turned out, it’s still not as comfortable as The Mule but I can’t say that my neck bothered me during the ride. The real test will come when I wake up in the morning. Will my neck feel stiff and sore?