I had hoped to get out for a long ride last weekend. I didn’t have as much time available as I had hoped, but I did get out for about an hour and a half. I made it count — I rode one of the hilliest 21-mile routes around, with something like 1700 feet of climbing. This is a route I’ve only ridden once before — my Ison-Harmony-Victor route. Fun stuff.

Spring is definitely here and everything is beautiful and green. I love it! The downside has been the rain — we got over 11 inches in April, setting a new record, according to the local paper. Maybe that’s making things extra green.

As is often the case, the turkey vultures were buzzing all around on the ridgetop on Victor Pike, by the Victor-Oolitic quarry.

It was a beautiful, and very fun, ride. The plentiful hills required a lot of climbing effort, but it felt like every downhill was more fun than the last.

I’ve got a few disjointed cycling thoughts swimming around in my head. I might as well get them out there.

• Sometime in the last couple of weeks, I reached 1,000 miles of cycling for the year. This feels odd because from January through March, I actually rode more miles than in any previous year. But, nearly all of it is commuting and other utility cycling. Very few recreational rides. So, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been riding as much. I tend to not count commutes when I’m thinking about the riding I’ve done, but truthfully at 11-12 miles per day, it adds up to a lot.
• That said, I don’t anticipate the huge upswing in mileage in April/May this year that I had last year.
• I commute on the fixed-gear bicycle on Monday. I found it a lot of fun riding around campus, and town, on the fixed-gear bike. The biggest downside was, I worked up much more of a sweat than I normally would, on a geared bike. Also, I had to carry my backpack on my back instead of in my milk crate. Not very comfortable.
• On my way home that day, I thought I felt more play in the chain than I should. On closer inspection, I noticed my chainring is coming loose. I’ll have to fix that before I ride the fixed-gear bike again.
• That made three fixed rides in a row (or four, if you count morning/evening commutes separately). The next day, I commuted on the Trucker. Coasting felt really VERY odd. I was a little surprised at how tricky it was to switch back.
• Yesterday I found time for a brief evening ride on the Bianchi. After riding the slow Trucker and pedaling harder on the fixed bike, the Bianchi felt even faster and smoother than usual. And, I managed to push up the hills in a bigger gear, too. It just felt GREAT riding such an efficient bicycle. This was the most refreshing ride I’ve had in a while.

I was invited to do a 60ish mile mixed-terrain ride with RCCS on Sunday. It was tempting, but that ride would have taken up basically the whole day. I decided to skip it. I did get out for about two hours on my road bike. It felt great to get out for something other than a commute.

Since I had limited time, I wanted to make the most of it, so I did what seems to have become my favorite short route, when I’m feeling spicy. A ride west of town, out to the small town of Stanford, Indiana.

I’ve written about this route a few times before, but I’ve never ridden it in spring. Things are turning green, and trees and flowers are blooming everywhere. It was a delightful ride.

As you can see below, the wind was blowing quite hard. I had a headwind on the ride out.

It was also a very hilly ride. This is probably the hardest short route I’ve found, around here. Somewhere around 1900 feet of climbing, in 23 miles. So, it’s difficult — but also a whole lot of fun. My fitness has suffered somewhat with less riding lately — a couple of steep climbs were even harder than usual — but I did make it up them.

As always, the Bianchi was a pleasure to ride.

The sign on this barn changes frequently. Here, it reads, “Christ’s return is imminent. Don’t miss it for the world.” Hmm …

As you can see, it was a lovely ride. I’m bummed that I missed the RCCS ride, but I certainly made the most of the time I had available, with this ride. And I had time to do other things yesterday as well. I think I struck a good balance.