After Saturday's 4-F ride - fog, freezing, flat tires and falling, I needed a nice, simple Sunday ride to clear my head. After church, I grabbed the Colin Laing track bike and headed out the front door. At first I thought this was going to be another fiasco when realized I was wearing my SPD shoes and the Laing had Look pedals, but after a quick change I rolled out into a perfect 60° afternoon.
My route started with about 6 miles of upscale suburbs and business parks, then thru a city park & onto the M.U.T. out into the country for a 26-mile round trip. Even though this is a ride I do several times a month and is usually just routine, there is something cleansing about getting back in the saddle after a bad ride the day before, and riding "naked," with fixed gear to keep it simple, no speedometer or heart rate monitor to enslave me, a simple solid color jersey with no logos or cartoonish graphics, and no riding partners to make it competitive. As an added bonus, I started out during the pregame show for the "Big Game," so the streets and M.U.T. were unusually quiet, and got back 10 minutes before kickoff.
