Karma Baby! (Or, the Super Sistas and the Double Loop of the Park)

Joy here..."Team Sunday," including the "sisterhood" (me, Cili Padi, Power Penna, the Professor, and the Trainer), were all set for a bike ride in the park this morning (we were only missing SK who was out of town).  We talked this week and decided that we've done enough single loops of the park, and we're probably ready to tack on another loop that includes the big climb up to Fortune Lake (up to the Champlain Lookout, a spot which has featured prominently in many photos on this blog).  It would add another 21kms of climbs and hills to our regular ride, making a 4-hour door-to-door bike ride more of a 5-hour door-to-door bike ride.  All the "sisterhood" were game to give it a try, so we all made sure to eat a whole lot on Saturday night, and pack up extra food and water for the ride on Sunday morning.

But the weather network was calling for thundershowers.

We woke to clear roads and skies that were hard to interpret, cloudy and ominous in some places and blue and clear in others.  But, still, the weather network issued its warnings, trying to convince us to put aside our cycling kit, sit tight, and stay indoors.

Clear road, clear skies, and good karma!

Already this summer we learned the valuable lesson, which is never to listen to the weather network, and what good is a lesson learned if it remains a lesson unheeded?  So heed that lesson we did, and despite the warnings of thundershowers beginning at the start of our planned ride and continuing right on through the morning, we met up with everyone, and looked up to the skies that hadn't opened up yet wondering if we should be conservative or carry on.  Then the Trainer smiled and said, "it won't rain on us, we have too much good karma!"

And so with that positive thought ringing in our ears and settling into our hearts and minds as we pedalled away from the meeting spot and towards the park itself, we smiled and felt good.  After all, she's right, we DO have good karma.  If karma is the notion that the deeds we do set off "cause and effect" reactions with wide-reaching ripples, bringing good back to those who are good, and ultimately biting the not-so-good ones in the @$$, then, surrounded by the "sisterhood," The Man, and Superdave, all ready for a good ride in the park on a Sunday morning, we had more than our fair share of goodness to go around.

Two roads diverged...and I - I took the
one less traveled by.

We rolled into the parking lot in the usual fashion, filled up our water bottles as usual, and got ready for a loop of the park as usual.

But this Sunday's loop wasn't going to be usual at all.

There's nothing usual or ordinary about two loops of the park for the "sisterhood."  While The Man and Superdave may ride multiple loops of the park on a regular basis, it's not something the rest of us have done.  And, seriously, it's not something that many people would set out to do.  How many folks do you know get up on a Sunday morning, looking forward to riding around 83kms over hills?  How many folks do you know prefer to wake up before the sun has risen to get ready for a bike ride rather than sleep in?  You get the point.  We're weird.  But in a good way.  In a way that gives us that good karma that the Trainer was talking about.  And so, I'd rather be weird, and I'd rather set my sights on a two-loop lap of the park on my bike on a summer Sunday morning than not.  After all, didn't Robert Frost once write that he took the road less traveled "and that has made all the difference"?

Cyclists chasin' down cyclists!

So today's ride was a ride with a difference.  It was a girl-power ride in the extreme!  We started off strong and rode up the Pink Lake climb with Superdave and The Man, feeling good and powerful the whole way.  Then, throughout the ride, over certain rolling hills and climbs or down twisty descents we would pull a "power move" and pull away from the group to stretch our legs and test our muscles.  Power Penna and the Trainer raced each other for a bit, and every now and then I'd set my sights on them up the road and chase them down.  I'd feel the pain in my quads as I forced the pedals to turn faster faster faster as they got closer closer closer, but it was a good kind of pain.  The kind of pain that lets you know your body is working and that you're alive in the world, and that the skies haven't opened up and stormed all over you to prevent you from having these feelings.

The turnaround - turn right to go home,
or left to continue on.  We turned left!

And our bodies were working just fine this Sunday morning, when the rain seemed to fall all around us, leaving the roads wet, but the skies clear for us.  We didn't get rained on once.  It was hot.  It was humid.  But it was not rainy.  Those thundershowers were nowhere to be seen as we finished our first loop of the park with cheers, turned left, and started up on loop #2.

Good fortune and good karma (literally) all day long!

You know what?  That second climb up to Fortune Lake (the steepest part of the routine climb that normally we only have to suffer through once per ride, but that this week we were tackling head-on twice), turned out to be easier the second time through.  Our legs seemed to be more loose and less full of lead.  Our cranks turned with a little more pep.  Our cadence was just that little bit higher.  And our breathing...well, okay, our breathing was just as laboured and heavy as ever.  I mean, who am I trying to kid?  It's a hard climb up a steep hill!  But we did it!  We ALL did it!

When we regrouped at the top of that climb, we whooped and cheered; we fist pumped and rocked-on, and then we just kept on pedalling under skies that still hadn't opened up.

Our good fortune and good karma stayed with us, keeping us dry, safe, and having a whole lot of fun.  We hit top speeds of over 60kms/hr on some of the downhill sections, tucking our bodies tightly over our bikes like downhill skiers and feeling the breeze blow through our clothes and cut the humidity just for a moment, and by the time we reached the parking lot at the bottom of loop #2 (for a total of loops #14 and 15 for the season so far), we were justifiably thrilled with our accomplishment.

And we looked up to the skies over head and the shining sun and no sign of the threatened thundershowers, and the Trainer just smiled her knowing smile, and said, "hey, that's karma baby!"

Over and out,
Joy