Swing of Things

I’ve decided that these past weeks have been neither my most stellar riding nor writing. I think that there is a parallel here. Let me explain.

I’ve taken a few months off from both riding and writing. Without bike rides, there is very little to write about on a cycling blog, so the lack of writing seems to have an obvious cause. I blame the lack of riding mostly on cold weather. And, I’m a wimp about being cold. So, it was off the bike and into the heated truck for a few months.

Well, now that spring has finally arrived in northern Utah, I’m trying to get myself going again, but find myself rusty. I feel much like the cycling comic book entitled Old Guys Who Get Fat in the Off Season. I’ve been dormant, almost hibernating. That means, that despite some muscle memory kicking in to get me down the road, I’m back to where I was last Spring when the cycle played out then as well. That same rustiness has settled into my writing. Despite some terribly interesting events on my  recent commutes and ride with my daughter, my writing has been terrible.

I haven’t even talked about how I used ski gloves and a baklava to keep warm when I was riding in near freezing temperatures. Nor have I talked about the migration from the wind jacket over a thick, long-sleeved jersey to a vest and arm warmers now that the temperatures have risen closer to 50° F in the mornings. I’ve not talked about these things because I couldn’t find a clever way to work them in anywhere. I still couldn’t think of a clever method of incorporating them into a great story, so they just get listed like that.

I still need to gripe and rant about West Jordan and their inability to support anything that doesn’t have a baseball diamond as part of the discussion. I’ll hold that for another day.

So, I’m still looking for the great story about helping out the geocachers, or my daughter falling asleep in the trailer immediately after telling me to go home, or about having three people lined up for the Salt to Saint relay race in June. Well, I’m really not looking for those stories. Those stories have all happened already. I’m just looking for the inspiration to write them in a way that anyone else will want to read.

Basically what I’m saying is that my writing will improve again. Please be patient, and I’ll get there.