The looming return of cycling

Sundogs lntl[1] and tfurrows[2] have both recently written about

cycling lately. I myself am really starting to champ at the bit to

start riding again.

As Autumn was starting to give was to Winter last year, I told myself

that I wouldn't let the cold itself stop me riding, but only snow and

ice. I thought this would give me a little more time but as it turned

out this winter was unexpectedly snowy unexpectedly early. Also, as I

should have seen coming, the heavily reduced daylight hours also

proved to be just as big an impediment as the weather.. I ended up

being very busy with work at the end of the year anyway, so perhaps it

wouldn't have worked out regardless.

But the winter that came in early and heavy is now starting to look

like it will be an unusually short one. The temperature is already

getting firm above freezing for at least a few hours almost ever day,

and the accumulated ice is receding steadily. I reckon I'll be out

again in March for sure.

As a devoted disciple of Grant Petersen I am very wary of turning my

cycling from fun and recreation into work and punishment and

developing unhealthy and distorted ideas like that rides which don't

hurt "don't count". However, I do have two goals for cycling in 2019

which I'd like to meet. The first is simply to complete a so-called

"metric century", i.e. to ride 100km. I did a 50km ride toward the

end of last year, and it certainly didn't come close to killing me, so

I think this is a pretty realistic goal. The other is to ride the

"Archipelago Ring Road" in South-West Finland, which I think I've read

is the country's most popular cycle touring path.

Of course, there will also be plenty of S24Os, you can be sure of

that.

I also hope that the Franken-Peugeot acquires a proper paint-job this

year. I might get cracking on that as early as the weather permits,

to avoid related downtime during the nicest weather. No, I still

haven't settled on a colour yet. The current leading contender is

orange, but don't expect that to last.

[1] gopher://republic.circumlunar.space:70/0/~lntl/logs/190219

[2] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~tfurrows/phlog/2019-02-25_springCycling.txt