Rolling Along

My foot is still giving me some grief when I run, so I think I'll play it safe and give it a bit of a break from pounding the road for the next week. I'll cut back the distance and intensity of runs and really get stuck into the mobility work. The reduction in running will provide a good opportunity to put in some solid work on the bike. After all, it is lagging further behind than I like.

This morning I decided to head for a long ride. In preparation I started mixing up my Polyjoule. I use a bit of hot water to help the maltodextrin dissolved better. I usually mix it with a spoon, and it often takes a bit of extra time. This morning I decided to speed things up and mix it in a drink shaker. The shaker provides a good airtight seal. The problem with putting hot, steaming water in an airtight container became all to clear very quickly. The kitchen and myself was covered in a lovely sugary, sticky gel.

Cleaned up I eventually headed out on the road. The sky was nice and clear, but it was cold, only about 6 degrees. I still can't wait for summer. The goal was just to enjoy an easy ride for a bit over three hours. That's exactly what I got. My legs felt great the whole time. The pace was slow, but smooth.

I rode into the city, just because I haven't been on those for a long time. I was impressed with the new separate bike lanes down past Melbourne Uni. I wasn't so impressed by the people standing in the clearly designated bike lanes, who stood open mouthed, at the cyclist speeding down the hill towards. They were like rabbits in a spot light, frozen to spot, seemingly without the brain power to think, "maybe I should get our of the way." Good thing my brakes are in good working order.

Being the weekend, naturally there were the traditional Sunday drivers. Paying more attention to the kids in the back seat, their mobile phone, or to anything, anywhere but on the road they were driving along. No real incident, but it does amuse me at how people seem to forget they are driving a car.

A while ago I wrote a post asking why people always stop runners for directions. Today someone decided to ask a cyclist for directions. It was towards the end of my ride, heading up the Greensborough bypass when a 4WD pulled over in front of me. The driver hopped out and stepped towards me. At first I wasn't sure what he wanted, and I checked for an escape route just in case. I never trust anyone who pulls over in front of cyclists, there have been a few bad incidents over the years. This guy was fine, he just needed some help. He wasn't just struggling to find a street nearby, he was so lost. For those that know Melbourne, we were currently in Greensborough. The guy was looking a street in Sunshine, probably about 40km or so away on the other side of the city. He left Broadmeadows, and instead of going west headed out east instead. How you get that lost I don't know, but I did the best I could and gave him directions to get back onto the Ring Rd.

Soon I headed down the Windy Mile and back home, having covered just shy of 70km of easy rolling along.

"The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal." - H. L. Mencken

Comments

  1. I must be soft - no way would you catch me riding in 6 degrees. Actually, I haven't been on the bike since summer. Maybe the TdF will inspire me for next summer.

    Hope the foot is back to normal soon.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Race Report: Sandy Point Half Marathon

Surfcoast Century - Race Report

New Blog: Running Alive