Chasing shadows

April showers bring… more April showers. And hail, wind, even the occasional snowflake.

It turns out the great weather we had on Easter weekend, almost a month ago, was just a tease. Because the ensuing weeks have been mostly cold, wet and windy. Anything but spring-like.

And that meant the Lapierre has stayed put on her hanger in the den. Except for the  cold afternoon I took it out to the balcony for cleaning.

If we can’t ride, we might as well drink. The FR Fuggitivi riding group welcomes the new riding season by celebrating International Belgian Beer Day at a local frites emporium.

It’s been a frustrating month. A head cold last week only deepened the misery.

Normally April is when the riding really starts to gear up, with longer Friday rides and the occasional evening jaunt. Especially since Daylight Savings Time was moved to the beginning of the month.

But this April it took 23 days before I was finally able to turn the pedals, a flat 35 km loop in the waning evening sun.

Chasing shadows, and my first April kilometers.

I felt heavy, weak, slow. I felt like I was in February condition. The Garmin stats confirmed it, not a single PB segment anywhere along the route.

The season that started with such promise has been dealt a major kick in the odometer. It’s been so long between blogs, WordPress forgot my password. So did I.

Oh well, at least Strava hadn’t yet forgotten my log-in info.