And the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling

Today, I took my new bike out for its inaugural ride. I put it to a 105-mile test, with Matt, out on the rolling roads to the north of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, finishing just as it began to rain.

There were some better views than this, but I didn't want to stop for a photo. It was a lovely route that I would recommend.

The verdict? It's a nice bike! I need a new seat!

Tomorrow I will go on either a 51-mile ride with some teammates, or I will ride to that ride, extending it by about 25 miles. We will see what the morning brings, but no matter what, I suspect that I will ride my old bike to give my back and booty a break from the new one.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MaggieTRAM2017

Admirable Zenlike state

This morning, there was a dude who looked like a shaggier, more casually flanneled version of this guy, sitting on the bus bench in front of our local bakery, finishing a donut, wearing a bike helmet.

I figured he was waiting for the bus, with his bike, which had his belongings in a plastic bag bungee-corded to his bike rack. I was admiring his chilling-with-a-donut-waiting-for-the-bus M.O. About seven miles later, on a different road in a different city, he pulled up behind me at a red light.

I pointed out to him all of the cars across the street, idling in the bike lane, waiting to pull into the new drive-thru Starbucks. Instead of commenting on the fact that bikes are being booted out of the bike lane into traffic or that the idling cars limit the exiting cars' ability to see cyclists, this guy says, "They are losing out twice. Not only are they stuck in cars, but they are drinking shitty coffee."

I liked his outlook. And told him that he needed to leave the light first because obviously having a donut in his gut wasn't slowing him down.

Whoa, that's deep

"We think that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love." -Walter Savage Landor

I was looking for a fun quote to help illustrate that I can sometimes be an ingrate (one of my most favorite words, learned when my sister tried to insult me as a teen), when I ran across this quote by Landor. I am not sure what to make of it, actually. I keep on reading it different ways.

Anyhow, I picked up my *!*new*!* bike last night. I was tired, the pickup was a bit messed up, the bike wasn't in 100% perfect condition, and it was a little rainy (again). I wasn't excited at all and felt guilty for being a blasted ingrate. A new bike, and here I was, all ho-hum!

Well, today was a new day. I adjusted some things, and took it to a different shop to get other things tweaked and ready and tightened up. The ride home from the shop was fun(!) and made me excited to try it out on a long ride this weekend. I'm sure it won't be a perfect riding experience until I am sure the seat is in the right spot (and that it is the right seat for me - - I am tempted to just order a seat like what is on my other bike) and that my shoe cleats are properly aligned, but I feel so much better. Kudos to the Highland Park Erik's for cheering me up, and getting my bike ready to go!

One thing I can tell you is that I am always grateful for the donations to the MS Society! I have met my MS150 fundraising goal and am at 25% of my goal for the TRAM. Does this constant gratitude mean that I have inconsistent self-love? Self-love for the fundraising but not when it comes to worldly possessions?

Mhmm... I think it is just some random quote that you aren't supposed to dissect. 

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MaggieTRAM2017

Lemonade out of lemons

That cold I had was a bit of a doozy, making my riding last weekend very slow, calm, short, and mucus-filled. I'm glad I got to get out, though, and meet some of our new riders and learn more about them. With 60 riders on our team, there's no shortage of people to meet! Also, the weather was warm and I got to visit a couple of lemonade stands on my bike, which I love to do, so I made lemonade out of lemons, as it were, with respect to my cold. (I always want to say that I made lemons out of lemonade, oddly enough.)

This past week was horribly rainy, greatly limiting my ability to ride. Again, in the lemonade out of lemons category, I took advantage of the crummy weather and my awesome, visiting cousin Sarah's perspective, knowledge, and enthusiasm, and ended up spending Friday going bike shopping. I'd post a picture of my bike, but I won't be picking it up until Tuesday night. 

Erik's Bike Shop guy helping me
figure out my frame size.

Rain, schmain. With Sarah at the very overflowing
Minnehaha Falls.

Sarah is one of my most favorite people. If she weren't my cousin, I would make her be my friend. She does sustainability work for a health system, leading bike initiatives, healthy food improvements, clean energy investments, and all sorts of interesting stuff. She was in town for a work meeting and stuck around for the weekend. I had such a fun time bike shopping, eating yummy food, going for a walk in the rain, bowling with my brother and his family, and going to a movie. It was a great weekend. The rain finally stopped late this afternoon, and I should have gone for a ride in the cold, damp weather, but guess I'll make up for my lack of riding in other ways.

I spent a lot of time tonight forcing hugs upon my dog. Her good buddy and my pal, Grady Green the poodle, was diagnosed with advanced cancer last week and died today. Besides just being sad about the loss of a quality guy like Grady (he and I snuggled a lot when we dogsat him) and feeling sad for his family, I'm slightly freaked out because he was about a year younger than Piper. I'm not ready to even begin considering entering that phase of life. Rest in peace, you goofball rooster of a dog, Grady. We will miss you.

I've got $89 to go to meet my goal for the MS150, but am only at 4% of my $2,000 goal for the 5-day MS TRAM. Yikes!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2017
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MaggieTRAM2017

The Very Day Seemed to Dance Within Her

In February, I went on a small book purchasing spree (well, a small spree, the books are normal-sized), abandoning my list, barely even looking at the books, relying principally on recommendations of the staff at my local bookstore (Moon Palace) and at Powell's online.

The book I am reading now, from that little binge, is set at the beginning of WWI and the main character is a single woman, a schoolteacher and aspiring writer, who has a bicycle.

Sitting next to my pliable dog, I have re-read the opening pages of Chapter 7 a few times because her bike ride resonates with me - - reaching a state of seemingly effortless momentum, self-made breezes, tall grasses in weedy ditches, time to one's self, losing track of time.

Although my circumstances are not like that of our protagonist Beatrice Nash - - who is lucky as a woman to find a professional job, yet the lawyers administering her father's small estate think it impossible that a woman could manage her own finances - - I understand the line, "The very day seemed to dance within her."

There are some days on the bike that aren't as lovely, to be sure, but I think this is what made me switch from mostly just doing the MS150 ride, a few commutes, and a couple of rides on paved paths seven and eight years ago to riding my bike thousands (yes, thousands) of miles each year.

I think doing my first, weeklong MS TRAM ride five years ago was the turning point, perhaps even it was the morning when I rode in the thick, quiet fog on the newly paved road, not sure and not caring whether I was on the route, mesmerized by the countless spiderwebs in the trees on the side of the road, full of glistening dew.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MaggieTRAM2017

A State of Denial

I need this jersey.

On Thursday and Friday, my throat was a little sore. Since I just had a sinus infection about six weeks ago, and I was riding through a bunch of blooming trees and pollen, I was saying that it probably was just allergies, despite the fact that my husband has been sick for two weeks. (He didn't have a sore throat.)

On Thursday, a car pulled up next to me.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"Are you the route captain?"

Yesterday, my nose was a little runny and I felt a little tired, but I'd signed up to do a 100-mile bike ride and didn't want to skip it.

My nose ran constantly (but it does often run when biking) during the ride, and I told myself it could still be allergies because I felt pretty good overall, despite a couple of coughs. This is the third time I've done this ride, and the the conditions were best this year, and I felt the strongest, despite my nose.

This morning, I woke up with some aches. I told myself "It's from the bike ride! It's from my sun burn! I slept poorly!"

One of my calfs. I guess my sunscreen application mid-ride,
after removing a layer, was insufficient.

So, I went to the garden store and grocery store, slowly and tiredly mowed the lawn for the first time in 2017, planted some things, came in the house and after being unduly crabby with my husband, blaming him for getting me sick, decided that I'm actually sick and took a nap.

We'll see if some magical healing happens overnight, but I'm skeptical. I don't regret the ride yesterday, but today's activities were clearly stupid. I'm not sure why I couldn't just admit it and chill out. Apparently those petunias were a big priority!

Instead of calling myself the Queen of Denial, perhaps this is a better way of looking at things: 

“Apollodorus came, Caesar saw, Cleopatra conquered.” 

― Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra: A Life

I adjusted down my fundraising goal for the MS150 from $4,400 to $3,000 and raised my goal for the MS TRAM from $500 to $2,000. I like raising money with my big team for the MS150 because it is a bit more dramatic. Plus, I like to lead by example with the fundraising. I decided, though, that since I prefer the week-long TRAM ride, and want that ride to continue to be held by the MS Society, I should bring in more money for that ride. So, I'm almost at my MS150 goal - thank you! If you haven't donated and want to support my TRAM efforts, please do so. 

Now, sleep.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2017
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MaggieTRAM2017

Local love

I guarantee that I would not have gotten into biking if it weren't for the Angry Catfish bike shop. Being able to walk down to pick up brake pads, new tires and tubes, to be able to stop in at the end of a ride to have my derailleur adjusted, or to be able to stop in and ask about gear has been a very... nurturing environment.

They also know me. What and where I ride helps them understand what to recommend.

It also can make for a sad check-in:

Me: Hello. Can I get a pair of brake pads?

Shop 1: How ARE you? We haven't seen you in a while.
(Discussion about brake pads)

Shop 2: Maggie! Where have you been?

Shop 1: I know! I was just saying we haven't seen her in a while.

Me: Uhm, I guess I don't need much maintenance this spring. Either that or I'm not riding enough.

Shop 2: Ha, ha. You're commuting, though, right?

Me: Yeah.
(Me, in my head: About half the time.)

Shop 2: Well, then you're loving today.

Me: I didn't commute today.

(Shocked faces.)

Me: I was running late, went to grab my bike and realized it was still nasty from the other day and my wheels were off. I couldn't get it together and cleaned up to be at work on time for a meeting.

Shop 1: Well, um, I am sure there will be other days... mhm... hey, look at your hands.  You've been cleaning your bike! And there's still time to get your brake pads on tonight and get your bike ready for tomorrow.

(Me, in my head: Yeah, but I can't ride tomorrow. Sigh.)
Me, out loud: Yep, okay! Bye!

The exchange was analogous to the posted photo of my Garmin. It looks impressive,  the altitude, until you read the scale.

There will be more days to ride. Like Saturday, when I am signed up to ride 100 miles. Too bad I missed these couple of days to bridge the weekend rides, but I could have real problems.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2017