Back On The Horse

I'm riding again. It has been two days so far. I lost some strength! Very surprising. My breathing is hard but that's probably due to the sinus infection. But my legs actually feel it a lot more now.

I noticed it right away at the first climb. I hit it soft. Like the hill was made of deep soft grass. It was such a loss of speed that my brain lit up with, "uh oh. This is going to suck!" Now, I don't know how much strength I lost, but I still had much more than I did when I started biking. So, I was easily able to grind to the top, but it was exactly that, a grind. It used to be sorta easy.

I feel a sort of sadness now on my ride. The thing is I sorta missed the start of fall with my shoulder/sickness layoff. Now when I get on the bike and start my ride, it's dark out. Like the darkest before the dawn dark. I roll off the precipice of my driveway and plunge in with my weak flashing LEDs tearing at the dark. I channel my inner robot - who is lazily programed to not follow the rules of the road, and I take up an entire lane and roll through every light. I glide past darkened houses towards the next traffic light who is metering for no one. Finally, when I get to my bus stop I happily say good morning to the first person I see. Just so I can hear their response and assure myself I'm not a ghost.