Was it your day?

Last night, with the promise of a wonderful November Sunday (Sunny & 14'C) I told Margruite that I was going to go on an extended road ride. Likely the last long one of the year. I didn't want to do it alone though, so I phoned a friend who I thought might be game, and he was. Bruce and I met at 1 PM at the Gretna corner, the wind was a somewhat vigorous SSE'er, which we thought, for the ride south and west to Walhalla, and returning east and north wouldn't be too bad a deal. We'd be more or less with wind for a decent section of the ride back. Things were shaping up well.

So we headed south into it. This first leg is about four miles (from the Gretna corner, I'd already ridden the 6 ish miles from town - all into the wind) and it went well. Then we turned west and, though things appeared to be going well, somewhere along this stretch of about 8 miles, I realized that I was not having a great riding day. There just wasn't a lot of snap and energy in my legs. But you know, you soldier on! The weather's great! You've got a great guy riding with you! It'll work itself out.

It never really did. And there's one pretty significant variable that I'd like to have eliminated before I propose that "some days are just not good ones" as my reason for this situation. That variable is my failure to eat a substantial lunch. In fact, I ate no lunch at all. My breakfast was reasonable - porridge and grapefruit and coffee, but I don't think it was enough to carry the day. After that, I had one granola bar just before 1 PM. Other than that I ate nothing until we got to Walhalla and stopped for a coke and a chocolate bar. Whereas on a full lunch I think the coke and chocolate bar choice would have been fine, today it didn't help much at all. For the rest of the ride my stomach was churning.

So I think there's reason to believe that I failed myself by not eating properly. However I still think it might not have been the greatest day for me, even though all of the other factors lined up well. These kinds of days are a bit frustrating, but I believe that there are rhythms in all things, and our bodies have rhythms. Some call them bio-rhythms. And if your bio-rhythm is off, it might not matter how other things line up. Of course, somewhere along the way today I let my mind be convinced of what it appeared my body was telling us, so you could argue that I defeated myself twice. Though I put up a good fight on the climb out of Walhalla, keeping my speed over 20 k/h for the full climb, I just felt finished after that.

Oh well. It was a beautiful day, and a good ride. 116 ks for me. If it's the last long road ride of the season, it was a good way to end it. It was a good day, it just wasn't my day.