Even the Best Workhorses Deserve A Rest Now and Then

Vicki and I dropped my bike off at a good repair shop this morning, so they could tune it up and figure out why I keep hearing a grinding sound if I press hard on the pedals, as well as make the rear derailer switch gears more smoothly than it's been doing. Earlier this week I had this plan form in my head: bike on Friday, if humanly possible, and then get the bike into the shop on Saturday as I had to go out that way for a haircut anyway. Then, hopefully, the expense of the repairs could be claimed within the quickly-drawing-to-a-close 2006 Wellness program at work, since I still have about $100 left on it after my running shoes expense got rejected. All of these facets of the plan just fell into place in my mind, all at once, with the biggest "if" in the mix being "if humanly possible."

While getting my hair cut this morning, I was asked, "At any point on that ride in to work yesterday, did you think about just turning around and going back home?" It's a good question, really, but in this case, the reality of the situation was just as I answered, "Nope, I really didn't. All I could think about was making it through that ride. I never considered anything else."

A couple years ago, biking on a morning like yesterday's would've been inconceivable to me. Too cold, for one. Too windy, for two. And entirely too much rain, both coming down and already down. I was, after all, soaked right through my pants by the time I was less than a quarter of the way to work. That's just stupid wet!!

My current thinking is that I'll buy myself a new bike in the Spring, and use up my 2007 Wellness $300 allotment in one fell swoop. Considering that I put about 2500 kms on my bike each year, getting a new one every couple doesn't seem out of line to me. But I told Vicki today that I'm going to keep the older bike in good running order this time (previously, I'd often scavenge parts off it to use on the new one). I've had too many times when the new bike's gone out of service for a few days (or weeks!) during which time I'm out of game. With a good backup on hand, I hope to avoid that sort of thing in the future.

And now I'll shut up about the whole biking thing, at least for awhile! :-)