Loops & rollers

...and tired!

It was a good riding week last week, but it has left me with the need for a rest day. I managed 193 miles on my bike, which would be light mileage if I were on a tour and riding full time. When it is combined with a full work week, that's a lot of miles! Looking at the weather forecast for this week, it appears that today is going to be the best commuting to work by bike day, but my body is insisting on a rest. Of course that doesn't mean I won't ride at all today - energy permitting, I may take a short spin after work. But it does mean that I drove my blue car to work today instead of making my body do the work!

The weekend? Somehow it seemed that I never stood still, between riding and other activities. Saturday's ride was a series of loops close to home. I started out with the intent of riding to Lowell and back again, but somehow my bike kept turning in other directions. I managed the same distance that I'd planned, just without a destination.

Yesterday I rode with Robyn and Steve, starting from their house and heading towards Groton. There is some beautiful riding in that area, and they really know the back roads so our ride was mainly on little quiet two-lane roads. It included a fabulous section of rollers, short relatively steep hills (for this area anyway) that you could fly down and use momentum to carry you almost back up to the top again. Nice!

Toward the end of our ride we were stopped by a freight train. The crossing signal started flashing red just as Steve arrived at the railroad crossing. He could have made it across safely, but Robyn & I were far enough back that we needed to stop, so Steve waited for us. Funny thing, as the train slowly approached the crossing, the engineer started blowing the whistle. I know that is necessary, but it was amazingly loud. So loud that I was standing there with my hands over my ears... The engineer looked out at us as the train passed by, smiled, and threw his hands up in the air in apology for the noise. And that definitely made me laugh...

Here's hoping that the weather cooperates and awards me with a couple of ride-to-work good weather days this week.