Estela is a happy bike again

Poor Estela has spent much of the summer down in the basement. Since April I've only been out for 8 rides on her. That's about once a month. Mostly it's been my knee cramping my style, since biking seemed to hurt it more than running. Which is weird. Plus this working for a living thing this year. Lots of nice days went by that I'd have liked to be on my bike, but I was on an office chair instead. I lost a few days just because of scheduling issues. Just lately I've skipped a few rides because she needed a bit of a tune up to deal with shifter cables. It was really hard to get onto the big ring.

Today was beautiful, and I was out shortly after it stopped being cold. The goal was to get out for a couple of hours to see what my legs thought, and try to spin. Out 22X and down just past Plummer's Road and back, 2 hours. The important number is 83 rpm average, which is nice. I felt pretty strong and didn't have any problems spinning up any of the hills. Of course, none of these hills are big or steep, not like RtN, which I haven't done in full this year. My knees were happy, and my legs didn't seem to mind at all.

There was hardly anyone out on their bikes, which was a bit odd. I don't think I saw even a dozen people. None of them waved, but then, they were on the other side of a 4 lane highway, so I guess I can forgive them. I just did my thing, enjoying the ride, not really caring about the pace, just trying to keep my feet going around, and it all worked out really well. I really enjoyed the ride, and I think Estela did as well. Bikes are happy when they are being ridden.

And then, just to shock and amaze you all, I ran off the bike. Only about 15 minutes, and not very fast, but I did. By then it was hot, and I was carefully managing my pace. I never really did find a stride. It felt choppy and a bit heavy, so I didn't want to push it. Walked about 10 minutes after to be sure to be cooled down.

No idea how many more nice days we're going to get. Calgary usually has very nice fall weather. Most of the time that means cool to warm days, with crisp nights, sometimes some frost. If I can I'll get out again, but my main focus has been trying to run this year. Four weekends from now I'll be running in Fernie, doing my first half marathon since early 2010. No predictions about time, so no speculation allowed!

What a great weekend it's been! Nice and relaxing, no frantic scurrying around. And yes, there was wine.