Thursday 6.25.09

Went on the official inaugural ride today with the road bike. Given that in my mind, I’ve half-retired from running, and I’m used to lugging my mountain bike everywhere lately, why not give the new bikey bike a try on the backcountry roads of North Kitsap on my running routes during lunch?

The day wasn’t as glorious as I’d liked it to be. Strange dark clouds loomed above, with the tree tops bristling at the winds that were swirling through from all sorts of directions. My sunglasses, which are some type of child-sized polarized sunglasses (i.e. orange lenses) made the grasses, brush and trees pop out, making the ride visually luscious.

After navigating the busy highway that is Hansville Road, I turned east and headed for Eglon, a little nervous about the hills I remember driving over with the car. But! Not so bad. Having my special shoes (the funky yet highly efficient clipless pedals and shoes, which, oddly enough, are actually clips) made getting up those hills so much easier. I can see how everyone says – when you go clipless, you never go back. And I didn’t fall once.

The ride counts as the first official road ride of the season – no riding around my block, no using it to get through Seattle, no trying out the shoes, no errands on it – just pure bike and road and me. And it also did what I hoped it would do – a good shot of adrenaline to clear the head as I head into afternoon’s work; now that this little writing warm up is done, it’s time to get on that assignment.

Post note:

The inaugural “group ride” will be Saturday with Reba and Beth on the Burke Gillman Trail in Seattle. Reba’s mainly the reason I purchased the Cannondale. She replaced an old school Huffy with a sweet Fuji last summer; Leg power and the mountain bike just couldn’t compete anymore.

The mountain bike doesn’t sit in a corner, however. It has gotten more use in the past few months than in the past few years, thanks to new found girlfriends who like to rip up single track. Such as this Sunday…