This weekend was certainly rougher than most in terms of exercising. I managed to log 36 kilometers on the bicycle between Friday and Sunday last week because it was unusually mild. Weather wise, it was a very pleasant commute to work. The commute back home from work was even more pleasant since I got to bike home through a light snowfall.
It was also a very educational weekend. I definitely learned a lot more about biking than I normally do over the course of a weekend. For example, I learned that it can be a bad idea to try to turn from a street onto a sidewalk that runs perpendicular to the street. I'd done this several times before. But this time, I managed to strike the curb, and the bike slammed me hard into the sidewalk. It was painful, but luckily it was just my ego that wound up bruised. I did somehow manage to cut my hand, even though I was wearing gloves. My shoulder is still a bit sore from that impact as well. I'm sure the motorist who saw me wipe out got a good laugh at my clumsy attempt to pull onto the sidewalk in preparation for the walk up the long hill I had ahead of me. Even one of my snacks for work got damaged in the fall. All of this naturally took place less than two minutes into a 70-minute bike ride to get to the office. That's ok, I didn't want to be comfortable on that bike ride anyway.
However, I did learn a different, much more pleasant lesson. At work, during some downtime, I read up a bit on making adjustments to the derailleurs. I'd had a lot of problems with the ones on my bike lately. The front gears wouldn't change at all. I had to reposition the chain onto the gear I wanted to use by hand for any changes. The rear derailleur still changed gears, but it had a tendency of skipping gears entirely. It would also jump between gears on its own, and the chain seemed to skip teeth when I was pedaling. It was a very unpleasant ride, especially since I'm still pretty out of shape. But I made some adjustments and while the front derailleur still doesn't work properly, I solved all the problems I was having with the rear one.
That made for a much nicer ride home from work. In fact, it was nice enough that I managed to set a new personal best in commuting home from work. My previous record was 61 minutes. However, it was a very grueling 61 minutes. I bolted home as quickly as I could, as one tends to want to do after working a shift in the office. I arrived home exhausted, dehydrated, headachey, and just overall miserable. At one point I even paused to wonder if I was having a stroke. Not a pleasant time.
This ride however, I shaved two minutes off of my personal best, and made it home in just 59 minutes. Moreover, while the ride home was challenging, I didn't feel like I was breaking myself to get home either. I'm really hopeful that this is a sign that I'm finally starting to improve. Since I started pedal biking as a matter of routine (my previous bicycle was an e-bike that is current out of commission), I've felt like I've made no improvement. Now, that's starting to change, and hopefully the improvements keep on coming. You know, maybe this weekend wasn't as rough as I remembered it being even though I crashed.