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Okay. This is a blow-by-blow account of one of my finest days riding my bike around the neighborhood. I linked in several routes and climbed some hills. I was moving along pretty quick and I was feeling fine. The cyclocomputer says 26.96 miles at 15.0 mph. I spent 1 hour 45 minutes on the road. That was fun.

So, I come home itching to ride. In my mind, I want to do a longer route, but haven’t had the inclination to just do it. Today could be the day. I’m feeling fine. I ate spaghetti for dinner last night and for lunch today. Carbo-loaded!

I load up the trusty old steed, drink a few glasses of water, then push off from the door and head to the same old route — down Pleasant. I bomb it hitting 42 mph. The bike is a little squirrely today as I’m not sure that it has the proper tire inflation. At the bottom of the hill, some dumb lady stops at the one lane bridge and I lock my brakes. I need to practice that better. I skid up besides her. While trying to slow down, I was downshifting my gears, but I also instinctively back up my cranks causing me to throw the chain. I fix it on the side of the road.

When I get back to the route, I have to hurry across the bridge chased by a car. On I go through the cool woods, left at Deerpark, bombing past the Ravens training facility. I eventually end up in New Town climbing the first hill. I have to drop it into the granny gear, because I’m not warmed up yet. I do the loop then right, instead of left, onto Deerpark and through Soldier’s Delight I go. I was startled by a bunch of gay-ass teenagers. I give them the finger, daring them to come back. Fuckers.

I take Berryman’s lane to Reisterstown Road where I do a u-turn, but then I head for the SPCA of Baltimore County. That’s downhill, so when I reach it I turn around a climb back up. Not bad.

Back to Church where there’s another hill. I climb again not bad. I’m flying at this point maintaining the 15 mph average. I head for the other hill on Church, climb it and head for the Tollgate hill. Before that I bomb another long hill. My bike has a relatively short wheel base, so all the bumps, dips and cracks in the asphalt were jarring. On the Tollgate climb, I practice spinning, concentrating on my form. I know now that I have to lower my seat as I bounce around too much while in the saddle. It’ll be just a smidge (2cm) lower next time.

Once more around the block and I am home.

Flew through that hour and it was fun. I have to do that again sometime.