Jacquie Phelan's Weblog

Two weeks since I arrived back at home.
Some of the gang kept right on going, and swear they won’t stop until the tip of South America!

Perhaps I stopped too suddenly after 4,200 miles of riding, day in, day out. Sudden deceleration CAN scramble the brain (ask anyone who’s hit a tree).

Maybe I’m sensitive to the ‘insult’ of quitting after two months of  18 mph for about 5-6 hours a day. Or was it 16 mph?

That’s irrelevant–only Corey cared enough to keep track of mileages and placings–I just know I’m tired beyond words.

Now and then, I’ll do an errand, and the floaty, dreamlike feeling that ‘this is not reality yet’ accompanies me down the quiet street. I am used to being shocked into waking up, paying closer attention, concentrating on hazards, dangerous possible scenarios, my risky choice of bicycling to the store, friend’s house, unemployment office (joke alert).

So far, no shocks to the system. I miss riding in a group. I miss having to pay close attention.
How can I get that wakeful, alert feeling while sitting at a desk, indoors?

I have to pull that book together (The Lady’s Cycling Companion)…I have a chapter already to go: “One Less Scar”,  drawn from experience.

Not neccessarily my own, since I’m pretty risk-averse.

No,  Other People are my experts.

They  skim alongside car doors.

Tap wheels with another rider and flip over the bars.

Zip around blind turns into–surprise!–Unanticipated Stationary Objects, and go straight to the hospital.

Ignore being dead-tired,

Ride without a light,

ride on a broken bike.

They look down, not at the road ahead.

Brake suddenly without remembering people behind ’em.

Oh, how wakeful one must be.

I rather wish I,  too,  had kept on going.

~ by jacquiephelan on September 7, 2009.

Posted in 42 ride, Alice B. Toeclips, Ride