hills

new short route today, barely even 12 miles: parrot, ralston, fleas. parrot is still hard but no longer scary. i don't "stumble" like i used to. still not fast, still drop my cadence to 55 at one spot. but no longer intimidated by it.

i've never before taken fleas from ralston. had to run the left turn signal, which is also a first for me. it skipped me, nobody was coming into the left turn lane, and there was no motion sensor. sigh.

flea street is hard in both directions. but it's also no longer scary. a nice little 13%, some 7%, and then a 10% and you're done. i haven't done fleas from hillsdale home in ages, that has a nice little 8% at the end of it which used to de-bike me. ha!

as i pedaled up polhemus' 7% 1/4mi stretch, i wondered how i managed 5 miles of 7% just 2 days ago -- i'm not sure. the body is funny; some days it's no problem to climb, others, it's tough. today was kind of tough.