Three Cycling Learnings

I went for a bike ride this morning.  I judiciously planned my route, wanting to ride somewhere new and get a decent amount of miles in.  I settled for a 17 mile route that went mainly to the south, which is not somewhere I usually ride.

I got chased by 3 dogs.  Three.  One more than two, one less than four. Three canines that burst out of their yard and onto the street and after me.  One of them even got ahold of one of my bike shoes (the huge English Mastiff) and another chased me for at least a quarter of a mile down the road (a black lab).

This is pretty much what I saw.  Only this is someone else's picture.

I am tired of being chased by dogs.  TIRED.  So tired that when the English mastiff was chasing me and trying to knock me off my bike that I started swearing loudly at the owners of the dog as I cranked up my speed going up a steep hill, of course. I'm assuming the owners were asleep in their house and not watching their dog because, after all, in the country you can LET YOUR DOG ROAM FREE EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE LEASH LAWS.

*Ahem*  Anyway, people-let's keep our dogs in our yards, shall we?  I don't like to do this, being a dog owner myself, but I think I may have to bust out my phone next time (after I have made my escape) and call animal control.  I am so over getting the poop scared out of me as a dog suddenly tears out of its yard at me in order to have a little cyclist for a snack.

So, Cycling Learning #1: New routes sometimes contain lots of new dogs with bad owners.

The other thing I learned on this morning's ride had to deal with planning your route.  Most of the time I traipse on over to MapMyRun and find a route that meets my specifications.  Most of the time those specifications are:

• Distance
• Elevation
• Not having to turn around on my bike at any point in time

I'm not too steady on the turn-arounds on my new road bike, you see.  Those skinny little tires always make me feel as if I am about to reach my lowest potential energy at ground level very quickly.  Because of this, I try to do a loop or lollipop-shaped course if possible.  Wanting to go somewhere new, I was excited to find this route to the south of me:

This looks fantastic on MapMyRun.  But what it doesn't tell me is that part of the route is on gravel.  Newly-laid gravel.  Gravel so new and mixed with sand that your skinny little bike tire just sinks in it.  

Yeah.  What's sad is that I knew part of that route was gravel.  But I hadn't driven down those roads in so long my brain hid that information from me on purpose.  Stupid brain.

Cycling Learning #2: Don't take a road bike on gravel.  Take a gravel bike on gravel. If they even make a gravel bike.

Other than learning a lot (just a part of my growth theme this week), it was a nice ride.  I took it slowly so as to recover from my 800 meter repeat workout yesterday (I totally felt that today, thankyouverymuch), so I guess the gravel slowing me down helped me in that respect.  However, when it is obnoxiously hot and humid like it has been lately, I learned this final lesson on today's bike ride:

Cycling Lesson #3: Sweat dripping down your safety glasses (which I always wear on the bike because I happen to love my eyeballs) makes it pretty much impossible to see anything.

Let me tell you, lack of vision spices up the ol' morning bike ride.  Even more than trying to flee from someone's unsupervised dog.

photo credit: domnit via photopin cc