No Garmin today —  13.3 miles in 49:20 (ave speed 17.4)

I was supposed to ride with a friend and co-worker, Kurt, who was coming out from our Lisle, IL office for meetings. Unfortunately, he injured himself this past weekend when his bike slid out from under him when he took a sharp turn onto a wet bridge.  In addition to road rash, he emailed me that he had jammed his thumb. Well, turns out, it was more than jammed. A small piece of bone, with tendon attached, broke away. So, instead of coming out for meetings and a ride, he has  a date with an orthopedic surgeon! I’m sure he would rather be riding with us!!!!

So, I ended up riding solo after I got home from work. It was 6:30pm when I got home and 7:50pm when Scooter and I rushed out the door. I took the extra few seconds to mount his front head light and checked to make sure my red-blinky helmet light and Scooter’s red-blinky tail light were still blinking. Dawn & dusk are the most dangerous times. That’s when it is hardest for motorists to see you — you either blend right in with the background, or the sun is in the driver’s eyes. Scooter and I did all we could to make ourselves hard to miss.

We rode hard and fast to the ranger station and fee booth at the foot of the switchbacks that lead up to Carter Lake. I toyed with the idea of going all the way up to the top of the dam, but the sun was just barely above the horizon when I got to there. No sense pushing the envelope.  I wondered if we’d had a tail wind since we seemed to speed along today, but we were just as fast (or faster!) going home. No leaves blowing or trees swaying, so I’m going with “no wind.” 

As I was getting pelted with little bugs this evening, it dawned on me how nice it is to ride in cool/cold weather because there are no bugs! The next time someone looks at me as if I am strange because I rode throughout the winter, I’ll just point this out to them.  Maybe they’ll change and become year-round cyclists too.

Certainly not the ride I had hoped for. I’m looking forward to riding with Kurt once he has recovered and is back in the saddle. In the meantime, I’ll be thinking of him as I pedal.