First Ride of the Season

I take the bus to work and it takes about 45 minutes, door to door, to reach my office. Today, in what can only be charitably described as an experiment, I rode my bike downtown to see a) if I could do it without coughing up a lung, and b) how long it would take.

I plotted my route through residential neighbourhoods, Assiniboine Park and concentrated on some of the few streets downtown where our city has actually provisioned for bicycle traffic, notably Assiniboine Avenue and Fort Street.

On this quiet Sunday morning, it took me 43 minutes to get downtown and 58 minutes to get home. This is encouraging and makes me think I might follow through on 4 summers worth of idle threats to actually begin cycling to work. Why did it take longer to get home? Basic exhaustion; that and a stupid headwind that literally seems to change direction every time I did. After crossing over the footbridge from Assiniboine Park to St. James (remembering to dismount before doing so) I sat down on a bench and casually drank water so my rest looked optional. Truthfully, my arse was killing me and my legs felt wobbly, full of searing toxins.

After 10 minutes or so of staring into space and smiling weakly at anyone who seemed poised to call the EMTs, I completed my journey home.

So, the good news: I'm riding a brand new bike and it performed really well on this, its maiden voyage. I did not puke up a lung nor did I wipe out in front of the avid/experienced cyclists who find Assiniboine Park and Wellington Crescent so appealing on weekends. My 'wind' seems okay though I did coast from time to time to recover and it's not like I faced many torturous hill climbs.

The bad news? Hell, let's keep this positive and say there WAS no bad news but I will remain cautious. Traffic was light, Sunday morning light. Monday could be a whole different story...