Today was a sunny winter’s day. The air was crisp yet inviting and the ground was dry enough to bring out the slick wheeler. Following a freak bout of overtraining, Coach has set me a recovery plan to follow. Today is an hour’s spin on the road bike. Perfect.
I dragged my shoes out of the cupboard still baring the scars and mud ornaments from the last mtb ride. They look out of place on the road bike (I pictured angry roadies chasing me down the streets with pitch forks) so I cover them up with some wind-stopping booties. I suspected the air would be a little crisper once cycling anyway, so these tackled two issues in one. I brushed the single-track dust off my helmet, popped it on over the iPod headphones and ear-warmers and headed off on my journey.
As the training was a leisurely jaunt for an hour, I decided that an “out and back” route would suffice and that the iPod Shuffle Gods could decide the theme tunes to said route. Spinning through the town centre on a busy Saturday always gives me a little thrillat the start of a ride – just the sight of angry drivers lined up doing 2pmh while I blitz through makes me smile. The iPod skips to something serene like Air and I find myself spinning towards a more picturesque scene in the distance. Heading towards countryside usually gives you quiet roads, and today I certainly found that. I had to keep checking behind me to see if there was a queue of traffic forming because hardly any had passed.
Twenty minutes in and I’m swooping through country roads with the sun on my back and birds darting in and out of the bushes alongside me as if they wanted to play. I chase them down a little, but not enough to raise my breathing. The trees are bare, but look warm in their fields against a blue sky and dimming light. The afternoon is fading and I realize I might be honoured to roll though my home street as the sun is setting behind a cloud. I try to imagine the colours.
Thirty minutes pass and it’s time to turn around at the next junction and head home. The iPod Gods realize this and shuffle one of my favourite “going out songs” on, and everything suddenly feels very up-beat. The street is quite so I steer the bike from left to right as if I was warming up for a formula one race, and the next thing I know I’m bike dancing and singing aloud in a strange village. Folk will talk, so I tone it down to a hum.
Fifty minutes later and the iPod Gods are well and truly on a roll with their choices. I wonder if it will find that Smiths album and ruin everything, but it doesn’t. I’m close to hone now and light is fading. Recalling the sunsets I had imagined I turn my final corner and glance at the delights in the sky – ah, gold. I hadn’t thought of that colour. Two minutes to home and Closing Time by Semisonic comes on as if were in a quirky romcom that has to have a song to match every eventually, mine being the end of the ride, but in a cheesy way it was just right; the victory song for the end of a perfect ride. I dismount and stretch out in the golden sun, close my eyes and thank the Shuffle Gods for a wonderful playlist. I’m not sure what dance I did to deserve it, but here’s hoping our relationship will prosper.
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