I rode off today with the goal of riding for two hours. I had two nut bars with me and a bottle of water. The weather was misty, but not rainy, and pleasantly cool.
The path wasn't too busy. The town I live in has about 100,000 people when the students are in school, but only 30,000 people during school breaks. It's dramatically different to walk around town or to ride your bike during school breaks.
I noticed a few caterpillars wandering across the path today and did my best to miss them. Then I passed a dead rat in the middle of the path. It has obviously been scavenged by some magpies or crows and looked like a nightmare. I made a mental note to find a big stick so I could flick the rat off the path. Yuck.
Further down the path I saw some beautiful sunflowers. They were so lovely and I managed to get a good shot of them on my way back. I stopped somewhere in there to eat a bar.
At about one hour and six minutes I stopped just before a road and turned around. I felt good, a little tired but fine.
When I was at about the 45-minutes remaining picnic benches I stopped to eat another bar. At this point I was really feeling it. I haven't pushed myself physically this hard for a long time and I wished I had packed a banana.
When I passed a downed tree, I stopped and broke off about three feet of a big stick. I clamped it onto my bike rack and road forward, searching for the dead rat. Then I found it and parked my bike to the side. It looked absolutely awful. Just super nasty. With one good flick of my hearty stick, it went flying into the grasses to the side of the path. A road biker smiled at me when he saw what I was doing. I felt totally grossed out and immediately like I needed to take a shower. I felt proud of myself, too, for taking care of my beloved bike path.
When I got back on my bike, I was tired. Dreams of a rest day started to float through my head. A rest day is probably a good idea since I've been riding a lot.
Soon I was past the 17-minutes remaining spot and I got my second wind. I pedaled hard and made it home with a total time of 2 hours and 12 minutes. It was a good ride.
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