After being off my bikes for so long and only riding around the neighborhood recently, this was my first “big” ride. It felt good to be finally back to riding. Well sort of back to riding. After not riding for a long period due to an auto accident I finally used my bike to commute to work yesterday and it was a challenge. Getting there was not too bad, but I also used the MAX train on part of the trip. But, riding home after work was a different story.

A majority of my ride home is uphill and it was challenging. I could have used the MAX train for part of the commute home, but I did not want to wait the 16 minutes for it to arrive so I decided to pedal on. The train never did catch and pass me while I rode up Interstate Avenue, so it was fun to be able to still beat the train to Expo Center. However, by the time I reached the Interstate Bridge I knew I was in for a struggle for the next 10 miles on the rest of my ride home. On the last hill I felt like I was going at snails pace, but at least I did not need to get off an walk my bike up the hill. However if it were light out I probably could have counted the spokes going by on my front wheel.

Although it was a challenging commute home, my overall assessment is I felt decent but also felt like I was maybe running out of energy too. I don’t know if this was due to my diabetes and I did not load up enough on carbs or if it was due to the fact I have not ridden over 10 miles since my accident. It was probably both. My total commute round trip was 35 miles.

In hind sight I think I probably should have waited for the train, but then again the sense of accomplishment was fantastic. I am looking forward to commuting by bike again and plan to do it again this week.

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