It's been a long time....

I was looking over my log (I know, I know but even the most laid back have a touch of OCD lurking in the background somewhere) and its been probably fifteen years since my cycling season got off to such a poor start. My last time out was April 20 and I had less than 10 days of any riding in the month. A part of that was due to lousy weather - we had lots and lots of rain in April this year and until very recently some very cold days as well. But another, probably more compelling reason is that we decided to put our house on the market and find something a little smaller and hopefully with services like snow shoveling and lawn care included. Amazingly enough we had an offer a couple weeks ago - and I say "amazingly" because this may be one of the worst housing markets in history - and this kicked off a tense round of negotiations, conversations with both our broker and attorney as well as intense search to find the "house of our dreams." It seemed that every time I thought I had a couple of hours free either we were headed out to view more houses or we were standing by the phone waiting for the latest from the attorney negotiating the contract....Bottom line at this point: we have found a home that we both like and have a contract and have just about concluded the negotiations with the buyer of house. Only hitch so far is a closing of June 17 on our present home and a July 13 close on the new house. We are not yet sure how that one will play out although we are certain that pitching a tent in Mercer County park is probably not a good option. And so May Day 2011 dawned sunny and warm and I was thinking bike from the moment I saw the light streaming in through the curtains. I headed out for one of my favorite routes that heads up into the Sourlands. I was riding roads that just a few weeks ago had traces of ice in the ditches and lots of water from the melt that was still in progress. Today everything was in bloom - the dogwood, the tulips around streetside mailboxes, the azalea - I even startled a deer nibbling at someones driveway bushes. It was simply a glorious day and I'm determined to get on a schedule and stick with it. Packing be damned, ride the bike. And for the record I did 51 miles, with 25oo feet of climbing (steepest at 17% grade) and used up 3100 calories - and that latter is a biggie since my bike is carrying an extra ten pounds and it would be a little easier to do those hills if some of that just melted away.