sweat and tyres inching interminably upwards

Today, a short(ish) ride with a very, very long uphill. The kind of hill I’ve driven many times thinking “I don’t think I could do this on my bike.” It goes on and on. Onwards and upwards. Ad nauseam.

Today I did it, though. It was tough but it was manageable. As I pedalled, the shards of my fragmented attention span seemed to collect somewhere, to cohere again, and I felt once less scattered, less foggy, more whole. I was particularly besotted with all the new leaves, a few the same shade as the moss carpeting the trunks of wizened oaks.

At the summit, I stopped. I gazed out at the switchbacks I’d climbed and, in the distance, furry ridgelines conceding a thumbnail or two of the Pacific. From here, that vast body of life-teeming, roiling water was as small, impassive, still and matte as a paint swatch. I could smell meat on a charcoal BBQ, and sunlit sweet earth still rejoicing in yesterday’s surprise rain.

I still had enough energy to cycle onwards, but I heeded the siren call of a DIPA in the fridge at the home instead.

THIS WEEK’S FACTS AND FIGURES

Number of rides: 2
Total distance: Forgot my Apple Watch on my second ride so not exactly sure, soz
Time left till AIDS/Lifecycle: 11 weeks (🙈)