Spider biker

So, today was the day. It’s come brutally, brutally late this year thanks to all the bloody snow followed by all the bloody rain, but today was a beautiful, wonderfully sunny day with temperatures that hovered in the pluses all day long.

So, today was my first bike ride in to work this year, and the first ever from our new house. Overall, I’d say it was pretty decent, although I know there has to be a better route than the one I took. Our house seems to be a bit of a dead zone, requiring me to bike through a meandering expanse of subdivision before I can get to anything like a direct route. That’s fine if I’m biking for leisure, but not as nice when I need to get to work. For that ride, I need to be as efficient as possible, and where we are just doesn’t seem to allow for that.

But, I’m hopeful. I don’t know my neighbourhood well enough yet, and there’s every possibility that I’m missing a golden, nearly straight line route someplace. The best route is straight up University, but I don’t want to do that. That particular stretch, especially around the U of W, has become pretty treacherous. One bike rider died last year, and another was hit earlier this year and wound up going over the hood and into the car through an open sunroof. Must have been pretty spectacular to see, but I’m not about to try it. If at all possible, I want to avoid that whole stretch.

So, today’s ride stats:

• Distance: 6.76km, 1.55km more than I rode from our apartment last season
• Trip took: 23 minutes and 14 seconds, I used to be able to make it between 16 and 20 minutes

Overall, I felt better than I recall feeling on my first ride of last season. Last year, I remember I was sweating like nobody’s business, and it took me to noon before I felt like myself again. This year, while there’s no doubt I worked to get to the office, I didn’t feel demolished when I got here, just winded and a little shaky. I was back to normal within an hour or so. I think a lot of things contributed to this. It’s probably warmer than it was last year, I got adequate sleep last night, I have pannier bags now (last year I still had the messenger bag–how did I ever bike with that thing on?), I had the uncommon pleasure of a big, hot breakfast today. I don’t think that I’m any more fit than I was; certainly not after slothing around all winter, but I guess you never know.

But it was nice to feel the wind, to hear the birds, to ride through the campus and see all the geese and look at the buds swelling on the branches. And then there was a spider. I dunno what it is about spiders and my bike. There was one living on my bike last year too, as I recall. This year I found another little one right on my handle bar by the gear shifter. It was amusing to catch glimpses of it as I rode along. The thing was clinging on for dear life most of the way. Sometimes it flapped around on the wind attached to a little web. I did my best to not disturb or crush it in my changing of gears. As far as I know, it arrived here with me shaken, but unscathed–a really well-traveled little insect. Makes me wonder what it’ll do. Maybe it’ll creep off the bike and find a new home kilometers away from where it started–some kind of arachnid pioneer. Hee hee. Small things. The world just never stops moving, and the dynamic nature of how all things ricochet off one another is pretty amazing when you think of it.

Anyway, it was a good day for biking, and I’m glad I did. Here’s the humble start. I guess we’ll see if I can do better distance this year than last. Last year, we were at 632km when I gave it up. This year, maybe I can try for 1000. It’s a blessing to be able to ride, to move my body, and to breathe the air. I love all that, and I’m working on seeing it every day.