Happy World Bike Day (Yesterday)

I didn’t take the commuter train out to Newburyport and bike back to Boston yesterday — instead, on a whim I biked out to Newburyport and took the commuter train in to Boston. 

I missed the 8:35 train and so I biked out and took the 3:53 pm train from Newburyport back to Boston. 

My knee tolerated the 47.5 mile day well — not too much swelling (there was some, think small grapefruit-sized, instead of knee sized) of the right knee, and very little pain. So that’s a good start, and proof that this plan can work as long as the knee complies.

I’d already covered a lot of this ground before — at least 3-4 times, but there were new routings within the larger route, and some of the ride was quite novel, and the ornery 12% hills were not on this route — there was one 11.4% hill, and that was enough. 

The weather was perfect high 60’s to start and it touched 80 degrees at Newburyport when I arrived at the station. Sunny day with good canopy cover, and no to light traffic for a good portion of the route.

Elevation was tame, save the 11.4% hill — it was short after all. And the Commuter train back to Boston from Newburyport was uneventful.

Back in Boston I had another 5.4 miles to add to the 47.5 riding out to Newburyport, so it was an excellent way to test out the knee — it did well and didn’t get to swollen or painful. So the train experiment is a go.

Day 34:
Start: Jamaica Plain, MA
Finish: Newburyport, MA, back to Jamaica Plain
Miles: 52.9

Today I’ll take the Commuter train to Newburyport, MA, ride to Wells, ME — Maine the last state on the tour! — and take the Amtrak Downeaster home. Another warm and sunny — great weather day — is forecast.

What I’m Reading:

Loss made me, iron-hot, shaped me.
Without this ember grief, only burnished
light remains. Snowless.

— Muriel Leung / “At the end of the world, you tell me about the bees”