158th ride

My ride today was a good one. The Tigers played the fourth and final game of a series in Oakland in which they were so far 1-2. The game, a real nail-biter at the end, began at 4:00 p.m. Michigan time, and didn't finish until past 7:00—but Detroit managed to win it and thus split the series. Now they head to Seattle for a weekend series—and then, blessedly, return to civilization (the Eastern Time Zone)!

I therefore went out with my heart singing and did my longest ride to date since restarting, going 12.2 miles in 1 hour and 3 minutes. I did the same route as I did on Sunday (down the Lohr-Textile Greenway, then on Woodland and Industrial down into Saline), except that I extended it further today, and where Industrial meets Campus (which runs by Saline High School) I followed Campus over to State Rd. I thus replicated a good portion of the route that I used to ride home from work frequently last year, but with two major differences. (1) On the outbound portion of the trip today, I rode from Ann Arbor to Saline, whereas last year I would ride from work to Saline down State Rd. and then come back to Ann Arbor via the route I rode today, so my direction was different. (2) The biggest difference is that whereas last year I rode on the road, today I stayed entirely on walks and paths. I thank God, too, for giving me trouble-free rides so far since restarting, and realize that I need to redouble my efforts to ride carefully and conservatively—to avoid being lulled into complacency by the measure of success I've experienced so far.