the little rides count. (which is good. 'cause they're all i do, these days.)

there's this little loop we do. it's not very far. it's *depressingly* not very far. from home, to belmont train station in downers grove, generally to hinsdale -- either to the west hinsdale train stop, or continuing past the center of town and crossing the tracks at hinsdale hospital. to the hospital is about a 12.5 mile round trip. kramer foods, where i buy bell & evans chicken, is central - about halfway between that train station and the hospital. if i go to whole foods, it's a little farther. it's a liiiiiittle uppy-downy. which is good. i like to ride uphill.

tonight we had stuff to do at home -- so no grocery shopping -- and i was leading, so we just went to the west hinsdale train stop. (hinsdale's streets are pretty hard on the tush and internal organs, but we ride there a lot anyway. if we only go as far as the west train stop, we skip a lot of the rough stuff.)

it was totally warm out. that's part of why it was so important to me to go. the thing is, even if a ride is depressingly short, you still get something out of doing it. what i got tonight, was sweaty. this is good. i have an amazing tendency to overheat, and to trigger migraines that way. the closest thing i've found to a cure for that, is to get super acclimated to the weather, to the point where any water i drink becomes sweat immediately.

the weather has been flaky this year, but so what. i ride anyway. because the other thing about short rides, is that there's still a conditioning benefit to be had from doing them. the *very* short rides, like to the library & back, i try to do fast-ish. that's good, & fun, to try now & then. riding is always better than not riding. i have a story about how i learned this.

one summer in the early 90's, when i lived in washington state, i had the opportunity to go with a bunch of people to bike up the back of crystal mountain -- a ski mountain in the cascade range with a fairly significant elevation gain. there was only one other woman along. it was august, and she had gone off-road cycling with this same group of people every weekend all summer, but drove her car to work every day. i had never been off-road before, but biked about 7.5 miles to & from the university of washington pretty much every day. i had no technique to speak of, and struggled in the mud. one of the guys and the young woman gave me a couple of pointers*, but to little avail. the bike i had at the time just wasn't up to it. so i shouldered it and schlepped it up the mountain, figuring i'd learn a little about riding down a mountain, after i'd made it to the top.

so here's the thing. the other woman who was with us had lots more off-road experience than i did, and a way better bike, so she had the capability of riding up the mountain, which i lacked. but she didn't have enough endurance to ride more than a few yards at a time before she had to dismount. i made it to the top *far* ahead of her, carrying my bike, because those little 7.5 mileses twice a day (rain or shine, 'cause otherwise it would have been never in seattle..) had somehow given me some decent stamina, without my ever noticing it. i never had to stop and rest. that young woman knew i rode a lot just getting around. i have since wondered whether she started riding to work after that. she really did love cycling, so i'd bet yes.

*the pointers: 1. raise your saddle a bit (for ascending; lower for descending). 2. in mud, keep your butt on the saddle. scootch your butt further back if you have to, which you might. the point is to keep your weight over your back wheel for traction. then pedal hard. if you stand in the pedals, not only do you not have traction, you're top-heavy and the whole bike can go out from under you.