157th ride of 2020 - Saturday, 11/28/2020

2020 mileage: 3943.3

I enjoyed a nice (though nippy) ride this morning. When I began, just a few minutes before 9:00, it was 31°, but calm and brightly sunny. However, the ride was not quite trouble-free.

I forgot the battery pack I need for rides over an hour, and this necessitated a change to my plans. First I rode down to Stonebridge and did a loop in there, and then I continued on to do the Platt/Packard Square. But when I got over halfway through the total ride (at Lillie Park, near Platt and Ellsworth, I stopped to check my battery, and found that it was running down much faster than I had expected. As it would be a considerable inconvenience if I experienced a mechanical difficulty and had no battery, and thus no way to contact Michelle or Uber, I decided to shorten my plans and head west via Ellsworth rather than making the leg northward to Packard.

This meant breaking my vow to Michelle that I'd avoid riding on the road, and I hated to do that, but it seemed the best option overall. I was still able to be on sidewalks for much of the journey home, but on two brief stretches of Ellsworth, I had to ride in the bike lane at the side of the road itself. Particularly concerning was riding through the traffic roundabout at State and Ellsworth, but I bathed it in prayer, and exercised patience, waiting until the right time to go (when traffic was very light), and experienced no problems whatsoever, for which I thank the Lord.

I muted my phone when I stopped to check the battery, and shut off Spotify—ALAS! no more music!—in order to conserve battery. While this helped, the phone still blinked off about a mile before I reached home. However, once I got home and charged it up, I could tell that my total ride this morning was about 15.0 miles in 1:48.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

176th ride of 2020 - Tuesday, 12/29/2020

2020 mileage: 4190.1 Another cool ride today—30°. I began at 1:00 p.m. A few miles into the ride it occurred to me that, while there are doubtless numerous days in, say, July, when it would feel good to be barefaced, right now (especially when riding) I'm very glad to have my beard. I rode the Platt/Packard Square, 13.7 miles, in 1:40. If I can do it again either tomorrow or Thursday, I'll pass one last mileage milestone (4200) for the year. However, the weather forecast for tomorrow doesn't look particularly promising (a possibility of cold rain much of the day). But Thursday, the last day of the year, looks better. And anyway, if it doesn't happen, I'm OK with that. I'm disappointed to have ridden less than half the days this year, having a mental image of myself riding roughly six days a week. But there have just been too many long and unconquerable stretches of mechanical and medical issues that kept me away from it this year. Here's to a better 2021! Li...
Read more

Saturday, 12/26/2020

2020 mileage: 4166.0 After not riding since Wednesday (because of prepping for a guest on Thursday, and then Christmas yesterday), I was eager to try to squeeze one in today. But when I went out to check at midday, the snow we had gotten rendered the surface unsafe for riding, in my judgment, and the 25° temperature dissuaded me also, so after just now finishing a Zoom session with our grandchildren in which we continued our tradition of building gingerbread houses, I'm going to crawl in for a nap now. I decided that there's no reason I have to beat myself up!
Read more