Sorry, the title is a bit of a niche, multilingual pun. My English speaking friends can substitute “Deer Me” for that one.
Without a headache and with it a bit warmer this morning my motivation was a bit better though I decided to try waiting until after my ride to have coffee with the idea that it would motivate me to ride faster. It didn’t work but I did appreciate that I didn’t have food and coffee sloshing around in my stomach. Riding on an empty stomach is not a great thing for longer rides, but an hour ride is fine. That said, having had no coffee I felt like I was moving through molasses. Everything felt slower and more difficult than it should have been. Surprisingly I got out the door without forgetting one thing! Weirdly I was on the road at 5:39:44 AM. Two days before I was out at 5:39:03. So I guess that’s the time I’m tuned into. I am going to have to start getting out a little earlier as the distances go up, though. If I wake at 4:30 and am out by 5:00 I can add another 10-15 km.
I did deviate a little from my schedule today, though. I had a ride to the west scheduled but something told me to take my “Triple Loops” route. It was a good choice. First off, the morning traffic was amazing on this route. For the first 15 kilometres (on a 23.7 km ride) not one car overtook me. That’s a quiet morning!
The route is a mix of mostly quiet residential streets and a few trails for a bit of variety. It’s one of my favourite routes for that reason. When I’ve tried to do it in the afternoon or too late in the morning it’s tough as the trails are really packed with people walking. At this hour I saw very few. It feels like I have the whole city to myself. Except this time there was a bit of wildlife. The first sign of wildlife was the smell of a skunk in the first 10 min. About 20 min in I saw two rabbits. Then at about the half way point I saw this:
They were on the path but when they saw me they went into the bushes a little. Once they were there, though, the felt safe and let me watch them for quite some time from a safe distance. You can see it below.
After quite a while just watching them it was time to move on. 30 seconds later in a field in the distance I saw one more deer. This part of the trail system seems to have a herd of deer living nearby. One morning last year I stood next to about 5 of them.
The day brightened more and more and as it did I could see the city waking up. A few people were out walking or heading to work, a few cars and buses were out. I really like watching cities in the early morning hours like this.
On the path about a kilometre from home something surprising happened. The rear axle (a thru-axle for the cyclists) loosened and I found out by the rear wheel wobbling and then locking up. Fortunately I wasn’t going fast. I tightened the wheel back up and will be taking it in to have it checked for damage. I just got it back from the shop and they want to see it and take care of it. Fingers crossed there are no cracks in the carbon frame or anything like that. I suspect there are no major issues. It was a bit startling to realize the wheel could just do that. You take them for granted and in decades of riding nothing like that has ever happened to me.
I still have another bike to ride. It is not as fun. Imagine taking the sport coupe into the shop and being left with a really nice Volvo station wagon. It’s practical, comfortable and does the job but it doesn’t zip around corners and accelerate quickly. I can’t complain, though.
What may be a challenge is that I suspect from how my chest feels right now that I am getting the cold that Sage has. I will see how it goes. The advice I’ve seen about cycling while sick is that basically if you have a head cold, it’s no worry though not very comfortable. If it’s in your chest, stay home. We’ll play it by ear tomorrow.
Here’s the video for this week.
And here are today’s stats:
I like how huge the “Poison Ivy Patch” is in the map. I saw it when I went by. It doesn’t warrant huge text on the map – bigger even than Highway 404.
As you can also see, only 11 vehicles passed me the whole time. That’s one of the lowest ever. The details are here.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow. I give it a 50% chance of being sick based on how I feel now.
