December 1

I was excited to ride today with temps in the mid 50's and the sun shining brightly after the rain moved out in the morning. I guess the wind and gusts up to 27 mph had moved the rain out. I ride in wind a lot since I'm on the coast, but today seemed more difficult than other days. There was so much debris on the roads and blowing around. Within a mile from home, a 10 inch plastic plant pot blew right into my front wheel and crunched under my pedal and between my wheels. I had to be extra vigilant about watching for stuff coming at me like sheets of blowing newspaper as well as staying upright in the gusts. My upper body was getting a real workout from balancing me and keeping the front wheel straight.

As I rode out from home, I kept telling myself it would be OK to do a shorter ride and turn for home at the next good road, but when I reached the road, I would decide to keep going!

I am used to a big hill with an almost invisible, very deep pothole in it. I always manage to miss the pothole just fine. Today, the pothole had been filled with loose black gravel tar stuff that was not just in the former pothole, but spread all across the road. I made it across the pointy, loose gravel OK, started to sigh in relief, but then noticed wood and who knows what scattered all across the road in front of me. I had to hold my line and ended up hitting a fist sized piece straight on which popped my bike up a bit and then it jarred me as it hit the pavement again. I heard an awful noise which I was worried was spokes breaking or something. I was amazed to still be upright and continued to the bottom of the hill to where I could stop and check over my bike. Remarkably, everything seemed OK! I think the noise was from the stuff in the road breaking and popping out from under me. But after that excitement, I'd had enough and headed toward home and ended up with 33.90 miles for today.

Just 3 more consecutive days for 60/60!