Film of the Final

I can’t say what the catalyst has been.  During the winter I was biking on the trail with the gears on this mountain bike set between six and ten out of fifteen.  There a slight incline on the way out and a slight decline on the return.  I’d coast along and enjoy the view and consider the hour of biking to have been some proper exercise. 

A few months back I decided to keep the bike in the range of gear eleven to gear fifteen and whenever possible, just kept there in fifteen itself.  This is harder going but it isn’t that bad, and I think it wasn’t more than a few weeks later that I told myself, to go “all out” for one hundred thrusts of the pedal or so.  Count them off in your mind and exert yourself a bit.  Next ride, make it two-hundred.  A few sections of two hundred there and back.

Today I basically counted off sections of five hundred for the whole ride north.  This essentially gets you four, five-hundred blocks and maybe an extra one hundred or so final pedals before you reach the turn-around.  Coming back. I did the same.  I don’t know why it is so important to count such things. Next time, I think to myself, I will just pedal hard the whole way and not count. 

I also think of the hapless son of my colleague who had a biking accident yesterday.  My friend and his son, indeed his whole family are avid sportsmen and they are also keen on using Go-pro’s cameras with near ubiquity.  So, he sent me the film of the final seconds as he ran right into an oncoming bike and suddenly stopped.  He needed to be hospitalized.  She, whoever she was, also was hospitalized for a concussion.   

When I’m back home I’m drenched in sweat, which is grand.  I am glad I’ve graduated to maximum exertion on my rides up and back.  It only took a year’s to naturally evolve to this state.

Thursday, 6/25/20