How'd That Happen?

It was a Tuesday, just like any other Tuesday…

Except it wasn’t, because something peculiar happened.

Why do I live in a hole?  (This isn’t a digression.  Trust me.)

Okay, I don’t actually live in a hole, but my house is quite a bit lower than the main road, and so I have to climb three hills (all ups with no downs) to get out onto that main road.  Then I get a flat mile.  Then I turn onto another hilly road, and that’s where I was when the peculiar thing happened.

I was on hill number four (yes, I did indeed count them).  My legs felt kind of tired.  The wind was blowing from an unpleasant direction.  And yet, somehow, my speed was higher than it was last week climbing that same hill.  How the heck did that happen?

Is it actually possible that, after just over a week of getting back on the bike, I have made some micrometric process toward fitness?

Being back on the back has made me change my eating habits, of course.  After all, food is fuel.  But I am not on a diet, as I keep trying to tell my lovely lovely and my daughter.  And yet…two days of riding, and they want to comment (favorably, I might add) on the size of my stomach. 

Two days later my lovely lovely asks, “Have you lost any weight?” 

“I’m not on a diet.  I’ll probably lose some weight, but I’m not checking for a few weeks.  I don’t want to obsess about my weight.” 

The next day:  “I know you’re not on a diet, but do your pants feel looser?”

*Sigh*

But, back to the ride.  I’m not exactly flying, but I am definitely maintaining a better pace than the first time I rode this same route last week, and I am having a few bursts of…well, not speed exactly, but less slowness I guess.

And then a much less peculiar thing happened:  my energy level just sank to near zero, as if someone has rolled back a cosmic fader on me.  At this point I still had at least five miles to go of my planned fifteen.  Unless, of course, I turn left right here, and that’ll shave off at least two and a half miles…no, no, no, no, no!  I will finish the route I planned. 

And I did.

Now, if you read a previous entry and you remember what it said (mental health professional do not recommend that you actually commit any portions of the blog to memory) you will know that I didn’t make my time goal the first time I rode this route, but this time I made it with room to spare.

Wow.  Good thing my goals are set so low, huh?

Still, it was a goal, and I made it.  We’re pleased.