318 – Ride of the Spandex Bandit

Cue the old western music.

Spring days always feel warmer than the forecast calls for, and fall days always feel colder. Today was a case in point, where the weather was supposed to be mild, in the low 50s, but it felt much more brisk. Nevertheless, I had to get some miles in for Movember, so I layered up and headed out to try and squeeze in 30 or so miles before the sun started to set.

The ride itself was nondescript. The leaves are mostly off the trees, the sky was gray and featureless, and the route was nothing spectacular. I went north along the Great Miami to the southern edge of Troy, a tailwind making the miles easy on the way up and tempting me to go further than I should. I paused at Dye Mill Road, looked at the angle of the sun and the distance remaining, and decided to turn back into the wind, toward home. If I wanted to tack on a few more miles, I would have a chance to take the long way back to the house.

My return leg reminded me of so many of my rides in early spring of this year, when headwinds sometimes made me wonder if I was ever going to really enjoy this road bike thing. I pulled my buff over my chin and tucked into the wind, trying to shrink my profile to decrease drag. I was encouraged to look down and see my speed was still respectable, despite the headwind, and I made it back to town a full 20 minutes earlier than I had estimated.

As serious as I was taking the ride, because it just wasn’t a lot of fun, I had to have a chuckle when I realized what I must look like to the casual passerby. A lanky dude, out for a recreational pedal on a day that simply wasn’t meant for it, dressed in cycling tights, a pullover, motocross gloves and a buff pulled over his face, pedaling into the wind as fast as his skinny legs would take him. What an idiot I must look, like some misguided spandex bandit. But I’ll take looking silly, if it means I can get in my miles this fall, without getting hypothermia.