A day of ifs ...

Was feeling better today... and the 40% chance of precipitation was OK with me. Will be wearing a bib short, a simple jersey and a wind breaker.

As I was leaving the sky suddenly darkened... left the bike outside my room and dawdled a bit in my room. 5 minutes and the dark skies lightened up. Good.

Tried to get coffee at the local shop but they don't open till 8am... yikes... time read a quarter before 8. Instead of waiting I took off, and followed my usual route to Tamagawa. Roads were wet but not enough to cover my face with road muck. 2 short climbs and downhills.

On the 2nd short climb, I was closely following a car up the hill and did not notice a right turning car. Well it was a close call. Good thing I was dilly dawdling behind the car. I was up the saddle for the climb. Close call #1.

At the bottom of the downhill after the 2nd climb, I stopped for cocoa and a calzone. Needed calories to burn. 15-20 minute break. The legs were feeling good.

The Tamagawa ride was uneventful, thankfully. I was, for the most part, alone on the Tamagawa. No other cyclists in sight. The sun was in and out of the clouds. Was good! I took off my wind breaker actually :-) I was also practicing riding on the drops. I felt I can get an extra 3-6kph while on the drops hmmmn that is good to know. I was actually going ~30kph at some parts of the cycle path. I used to run this parts at ~25kph.

At the, maybe 60km mark I got my 2nd close call of the day and I learned my lesson. I was doing ~30kph and almost hit a boy on the path. Locked the rear wheel a bit. Lesson learned.

1) Don't dilly dawdle up a hill
2) Make yourself visible to other riders
3) It's good to ride on the drops
4) but need to slow down when there are people around (I do this most of the time, I guess I got too excited being on the drops)
5) Cover the brakes (but right now I feel I can't reach the brakes while on the drops, need to adjust)

During the ride I also felt pain on my left shoulder area. Hmmn. It's patched right now with Salonpas :-) The legs were feeling good during the duration of the ride maybe I should have pushed more? Next time maybe.

So what if the car hit me? I'd be probably spending my days at the hospital. Worse if I hit the boy. I am focused while riding, trying to look for possible problems but I need to be more alert. Need to put all the lessons learned to practice.