Spin to Win

Relief.
Sadness.
Joy.
All these things went through my mind as I left work today.
Now if I was still a student, I'm pretty sure exhilaration would be somewhere in there too, but I'm not so it's not.
I can forget about waking up with the sun and taking on morning traffic.
No more unruly kids and living by the bell.
I'll miss the people I work with and the day to day interactions.
I won't be missing too much time on my bike.
In fact, the first thing I did when I got home:



Gee, either that image is blurry or I'm really tired.
That's a pretty good pic of my well worn tire though.
It was supposed to show that I was on the road by eleven this morning.
That's right, I left work early and hit the road.
Boy, I needed it.
I had forgotten how much I missed it.
Okay, it was only like four days since my last ride, but hey! it felt good!
Work this year was something of a challenge. I should say more of a challenge for it's always a challenge. Without getting into details, I'll just say it was quite frustrating, but I did manage to learn a few things.
I work in one on one situations which makes things a bit different. For one, you sort of measure success by the accomplishments of just one student.
This may not seem that difficult, unless you take into consideration what happens if that students fails all the time. What I mean is that in a class room setting, you can measure your success by the whole class.
If you lose one or two, it's okay for overall, you did your job.
With one kid though, well, you sort of live and die with him.
You cannot just say 'oh well,' walk away and turn to the next student. You have to keep working until the issue is resolved.
That doesn't mean it ever gets resolved.
It just means you keep working on it.
Hitting your head against a brick wall comes to mind.
So anyways, me and my bandaged head went out today with the intention of just cruising around, enjoying our new found freedom.
Well, like some bike rides, it turned into a workout.
Spin, spin, sugar!
I've sort of been working on my cadence, spinning in a lower gear and keeping the heart rate down.
Let's face it though, somedays you got legs, and somedays you got two things that only look like legs.
Today, I had legs.
Really, I should take like four days off more often!
I must have looked a bit funny, cruising around spinning like a madman, not really going fast or anything. And let me tell you, I was pedaling my proverbial derrier off!
Well, all this time, I've been averaging around the high sixties in cadence.
Today:



Voila!
Not quite the eighties I was hoping for, but a definite improvement.
The thing is, those small rollers were easier to take going down a gear and spinning up instead of holding my gear and mashing.
In the end, I think I made some real gains albeit little ones.
Sort of changed the way I'm approaching my rides.
I got home and started thinking.
Now that's dangerous!
Me thinking, I mean.
As far as work went this year, I made some small gains.
I mean I didn't turn the kid into an A student brainiac genius, but I think I did manage to change how he approaches his education.
In small ways.
All that time, I thought I was just spinning my wheels.
Well, I guess all that time I was just, well, spinning.
Hopefully, I'll be better because of it.
Summer is going to be great!