I've been feeling a bit out of sorts the past few days. Not ill and not "depressed", just sort of a low grade "something's missing" that's been hanging over me. I was post-processing my previous post (see what I did there?) on my ride yesterday and coincidentally had an email from a friend on strategies for riding through the pandemic. I also heard yesterday that the Great Southern Randonnée (GSR) was canceled for 2020.
I realized that yesterday's post missed the mark and could be interpreted to mean that I'm missing the miles I rode during 2019 since I wrote how many fewer miles I'd ridden this year as compared to last.
But that's not the case at all, what I'm missing are the experiences associated with doing brevets around the country and world: seeing different places, reuniting with friends I've made, riding in different terrain, experiencing the culture, etc.
As has always been the case, the overwhelming majority of miles I ride are solo. The exceptions are brevets, both local and global. The local brevets let me reconnect with friends here and, because the majority of my solo rides are in the 30-60 mile range, let me ride on roads that I don't normally get to. Likewise, I look forward to the international brevets for the experiences that come with going to another country and to see friends I've made from around the world.
That's what I miss. To use a metaphor, my riding is like a solo voyage across the ocean and brevets are islands in the sea: I look forward to the next one and think about the last one for a long time afterwards. Not having those "islands" in my cycling year is a real loss.
Still, a first world problem to be sure. I have my health, I can still ride my bike and this will all eventually pass. I've found other ways to add some spice/focus to my riding (the Everesting challenge) and will continue to do that by mixing up routes, going in directions I've not gone for a while and perhaps doing some rides with starting points other than my front door.
Life is beautiful.
Stay tuned!
