It wasn’t a bang. It wasn’t a whimper. It was the unmistakable ping of a popped spoke. Just like that, 37 miles into the 50-mile route I meant to do, my ride was over. And just like that, summer ended. Today was beauty touched with sadness, a swan song. For all its brilliance, today the sun had only a fraction of its mid-summer power. Tomorrow’s forecast looks decent enough, I suppose, and I’ll try to get out for an hour after work. Tuesday should be a rest day but I’m not ruling out another 1-hour ride. Then the air gets a lot cooler: on Wednesday and Thursday we probably won’t reach 60. We should warm up a little on Friday … just in time for a 6:59 p.m. sunset. This will be my last week of after-work rides until next spring.
I’m just 182 miles away from 4,000 miles this year. Anything after that will be gravy. I want to do more hiking this fall, taking some time away from cycling before getting back into indoor trainer sessions in December. My overall approach to indoor training will be different than it was in the past. Bike trainer sessions and weightlifting will continue to be the cornerstones, but I’m going to add stair climbing—real stairs, not a machine—to provide another option. More options = less tedium. Why stair climbing? Check out this article or search the Internet for hundreds more like it. Aside from the well-documented physical benefits, for me a big factor is the convenience of doing the exercise at my office right after work. And I love the cost: nothing. I think it’s odd that I can ride my bike for hours without getting winded, while briskly climbing just a couple of staircases can leave me gasping. Clearly there’s a hole in my overall fitness and I aim to plug it. If I do it right I should drop a few pounds too. In a typical winter I’m 6-7 pounds heavier than I am at the end of summer. Maybe this will be the year that I don’t let the weight creep back up.
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