I am sure, with the blind faith of a zealot, that suffering through a month of 100+ degree days earned me the karma for perfect weather at the Crazy88, and 4 days later a commute to work under overcast skies and light drizzle at 11am.   11am!   11 THE FUCK AM!!!!! I haven’t ridden past 11am since like November!   Normally I’m asleep at 11 after a buttcrack’o’dawn ride.

Used to be I could get up get out and get moving on a workday in about an hour, worst-case, with G.   Its impossible when I add to the mix Alana and guaranteed one of the following: bubble bath, dogged insistence on a morning book club meeting, brekkie from a bottle, or a pants crisis.   But I was potentially meeting some friends for beers at Papago Brewery so was not going to drive, and needed a real ride to knock off the lingering hurt from the Crazy88

I went pretty damn fast.   My legs felt flat, but I pushed a tall gear the whole ride in.   The first 35 minutes into the Res were in a light drizzle.   Not enough to make the hot roads slick, but just enough to give me micro shivers where the raindrops landed on my legs, and a cool band of air difting off the ground.   And I was going nice and fast.   When the rain ended, GnR’s Sweet Child O’Mine came on my player.   In 1991, me and a friend of mine named Bruce who went onto grad school in physics at Cornell had a rule that we had to chug our beers and dance on the bar when that song came on.   It was our club, after all. Its still a favorite, and one of the all-time anthemic hairband songs.   I hammered harder, and were it not for missing a long light at Hayden would have been in at 50 minutes.   Just about my best time.

The ride home was after 7 under the cooling, setting skies.   It seemed like it hurt more, it kinda just started slower at the end of the workday and through the deathrace of Scottsdale, but it ended at 55, 1 minute off my best.

I haven’t commuted in close to 2 months since I had so many other limitations on my flexibility.   84 miles of climbing on big wheels made my legs stronger.   84 miles of realizing how much faster you need to go to keep pace made me want to hammer.   84 miles of not 110 degrees made me ready to take advantage of a cool day.   All 30 miles of it made me realize again how much better it is than a car.