“Are you riding again tomorrow morning?” asked my wife, as we were driving home from dinner out with friends.
“Yes,” I said. “The club is taking a 66-mile hill excursion. I’m going to leave with them, but I’m only going half as far.”
She was silent for a moment. Then:
“I think we’ve reached the point where biking is taking over other important things in our lives. When you ride on the weekend, you’re gone all morning, then when you get home, you crash on the bed for two or three hours. There’s a lot of work around here that’s not getting done. Now that your 100-mile ride is out of the way, it’s time to start pitching in more around here.”
Ouch. She’s right. Well, I’m usually not gone all morning on Saturdays, but Sundays can turn into three or four hour rides. And yes, I do seem to be prone to napping after an exhilarating ride.
She ticked off a couple of must-do items: “We need to do the windows, especially the glass in the arched tops. That bush on the front corner of the house needs to be drastically cut back. The garage needs to be cleaned out.”
Right again. Okay, I’m still doing the Sunday ride, then I’ll plunge right in to cleanup when I get home.
I had planned a B-level ride of about 35 miles, heading out in the same direction as the rest of the club, but stopping short and turning back before they hit their hilliest part. As it turned out, no other B riders showed up, and 10 miles into the ride, I struggled up a tough hill. Everybody waits in a parking lot at the top of the hill, but as I approached the crest, I saw them pulling out of the lot. I flagged down the last rider and told him I was peeling off from the group.
Pat was surprised when I walked through the door just an hour and a half after I left for the ride. She had on her bike clothes, and was just about to head out for a ride of her own.
I got the windows done, and did some maintenance on our old Kirby vacuum cleaner. But after a short lunch break, her prediction came true — I flopped on the bed for a two-hour nap.
Okay, the bushes and the garage will get their due next weekend. I’ll still ride — but I have a hunch my riding will take up a lot less time through at least the end of the year.