Burning Man

Rob and I make it to work. Rob is smiling. I'm just happy to be alive.

For my first ride of the year a few weeks ago, my old friend Rob Coalson agreed to show me the way again from our flats in Prague 6 to where we work, in Prague 10. It was a cold, gray, miserable morning. I was riding not because I wanted to, but because I felt I had to -- had to start riding, had to get some exercise, had to get off my fat ass.

There wasn't even anything decent to take a photograph of.

The ride cuts through Stromovka park, snakes along the east side of the Vltava, passes through Liben, before connecting up with Europe's Most Expensive Cycling Path. From there, it's a twisty, turny back way that avoids lots of cars and congestion but does include a few challenging climbs.

Challenging for me, at least.

I've now got this problem where my quadriceps -- the big muscles on the top of the thigh -- burn like hell even after minimal exertion. I don't remember them hurting this much before. My thighs are suffering even going up relatively minuscule inclines.

I took the metro home that night and got off at Dejvicka, before riding the three or four kilometers up Evropska, to home. I literally had to stop every few hundred meters going up Evropska to let my thighs rest. It hurt that much. And I'm the guy with the cycling blog. Pitiful.

I guess it was exacerbated by sitting at my desk all day, letting my muscles tighten, before hopping back on the bike. I've trolled the Internet to see what the problem could be and all I can find is that I probably need to stretch more before riding. But I'm not sure that's going to solve it, frankly.

I limped home and gave serious thought to whether I need to give up this cycling business. It was just no fun.

I guess riding more will help, too. But something just doesn't feel right.

RIDE STATS
Length of ride: 30 kilometers
Average speed: 14.8 kph
Maximum speed: 35.3 kph
Time on the bike: 2.01.25
Pivo Index: 0
Distance ridden so far in 2012: 30 kilometers


For some reason, this ugly grocery store and all-night bar in some nondescript Prague 10 neighborhood summed up the ride for me. Depressing.


Art Nouveau decoration on an ordinary house on a gray, dirty street somewhere in Prague 10.


Someone's lost gloves hanging in a bush. I know how they feel.


An old boat seen through leafless shrubs next to the murky waters of the Vltava near Liben.