It's a Beautiful Morning!

"...I think I'll go outside for a ... err ... spin. (Yeah, dat's it. Dat's da ticket!)"

I had a very nice ride in this morning. The temperature was pretty nice (70F/21C) — definitely a nice change from the sweltering heat we've had of late. It's still humid, but I'll take 21C and humid over 32C or higher and humid any day of the week. The weather has transitioned from soupy to something more like ... err ... gazpacho-y?

Nah, I don't think it's quite cool enough to be gazpacho-y, but it's the closest thing I can come up with :)

I also saw two other cyclists — one with a full-on commuter rig (panniers, racks, 700x38ish tires) and a reflective vest (smart guy). It was a nice setup. The other was riding a mountain bike and traveling in the opposite direction. I sat on the commuter rig's wheel for about half a block, then when it was safe to pass called, "Good morning! On your left!" and swung around him. He caught me at the next red light, and I figured we'd play catch-up for a while, but that was the last I saw of him. I was rolling at about 15 MPH, which isn't all that fast, but he was riding a more still-more-leisurely pace.

I was, of course, curious about where he was going. Part of me thought I should try to chat with him at the light (though he was behind me, and I'm presently a bit deaf due to fluid in my ears). I wish I wasn't so shy in person. I don't want to seem like a jerk. In fact, it's marginally possible that I'd met this fellow once before, but I didn't get a good enough look at him or his bike to be sure.

In other news, for some reason, my arm kept falling asleep last night. You would think that, since the rest of me was also asleep (if in a slightly more literal sense), this would not have been a big deal. In fact, it drove me nuts and woke me up continually throughout the night. Some time around four in the morning I finally woke up enough to figure out that sleeping in a different position might relieve the problem, so I rolled over and sprawled out flat on my back. I then proceeded to have really weird, intense dreams about cycling. Go figure. Once, I woke myself up flailing around.

For the record, I find it interesting that my sleeping position often seems to incluence my dreams. When I sleep flat on my back, I tend to have intense, vivid dreams, and they often involve physical activities like swimming or cycling. I think that's kind of strange. Maybe it's just that I always dream about physical activities but remember my dreams more clearly if I sleep on my back? I'm going to have to experiment with this.

Anyway, this morning, I feel surprisingly refreshed, even though I got to bed late (it was almost 11 PM! GASP!), fell asleep even later (close to midnight! OH NOES!), and slept poorly. I attribute my alert and cheerful mien to this morning's lovely ride.

Events This Week:

• Tonight (Tuesday) is 5-Spot Criterium Series #2. Newbie class is free; $5 to race. I won't be going tonight, but I have the green light for July 13th.
• Wednesday will see the final Short Track Mountain Bike Race of the series. I won't get to see the actual races because I'll be doing a 'slow and easy' group ride at 6 PM, but I want to try to get my butt out there to help tear down.

Oh, one more amusing little anecdote. Last night, as I was riding down 3rd Street, spinning a pretty fast cadence (Quicksilver seems to inspire high-cadence pedaling), a gentleman riding a cruiser-style bike down the sidewalk called out, "Pedal faster!"

I'm not sure whether he was heckling me or just being funny, but it made me laugh.