Labouring after Labour Day

My trusty steed.

Joy here...While many countries celebrate Labour Day at different times of the year (and on different days within one country, if that country happens to be Australia), in Canada and the US the holiday is celebrated on the first Monday of September.  In the US, though, "Labor" is spelled without its "u" as those darn Americans like to simplify their spelling like nobody's business.

Up here, we still keep our "u" in "Labour," but try not to do any labouring.  Labour Day is a day to take it easy.  It generally marks the end of summer, and usually right after Labour Day all the kids are back at school after their holidays.  It marks the change from one grade to the next, and symbolically the end of Labour Day marks a transitional moment.

As I rode out to meet SK and a couple of her friends for a post-work ride on the Tuesday after Labour Day, I couldn't help but think of these transitions.  Instead of cicadas buzzing heavily in the summer sun, evoking over-ripe grapes hanging lazily in still and hot vineyards, or ripened peaches on the tree, so full of juice that they drip, and humidity and summer hanging in the air with a sweet smell, I rode to the sound of crickets.  They sung in the bushes all around me as a cool breeze blew off the Ottawa river, and I knew that we'd not have much time to squeeze in this ride before the sun set on us.

The cool river and the wind blowing the clouds.

So as the late afternoon threatened to turn into early evening, we made our way to the park for a quick ride up to Pink Lake before we would let ourselves head home for a hearty and well-deserved dinner.

Back in April, one of my first rides of the season was a ride up to the Pink Lake lookout, and on a few weekdays throughout the summer, I've headed up there with friends for a tough ride that only takes about 2 hours door-to-door, like this time when I went with The Professor and The Trainer, or this time when I powered up with The Professor at 7am, or this time when The Professor and I did the ride and saw Power Penna in passing, or when The Trainer and Cili Padi and I started doing hill repeats up that 8% climb, ending with last Friday's epic three-peat ride up the hill.  My point is just that this climb has featured prominently, not just on this blog throughout the summer, but in my own cycling experience this summer.

The sun, about to set, hanging low in the clouds.

Yet as the weather is beginning to turn - from hot and humid to cold and clammy - Tuesday's ride to race the setting sun and stay warm in the face of a cool, almost-autumnal breeze, seemed to hint at the approaching close of our cycling season.

Last year as I was training for my first ever 1/2 marathon I described what the descent of autumn feels like on this blog.  I wrote that autumn means:  "one day it will be hot and sunny; the next day it will be cold; the next day it will be cold and rainy; lo and behold, the next day will be hot and sunny again; then the day will begin with frost and end being hot and sunny...etc.  In short, the weather is entirely unpredictable." 

And if this insight about the fluctuations and changeability of autumnal weather was true last September, it remains true this September.  Tuesday started at 11C and was 19C by the time we began our ride, but it was down to 12C overnight.  So we rode to beat the dark; and we rode to beat the increasing cold.

The sun setting on our path home.

Better than your local pub.

But we also rode for fun!  Our legs were still screaming from Sunday's epic two-loop ride of the park (which included this Pink Lake climb), and we did our best to ignore that burn as we turned our gears and willed our bodies up the climb, because it's fun to ride a bike.  It allows you a chance to plug into your inner child and ride fast and throw your adult caution to the wind as you fly down descents without a care in the world.  Gone are worries about bills; gone are worries about scheduling; gone are the petty frustrations of the day; your "to do" list?  Forget it.  All those mundane things that clutter our adult lives just fall away from you as you ride a bike.

So if my post-Labour Day ride showing me that the transition from summer to fall may just be upon us, and that change is afoot, then it also showed me that a good, hard bike ride with a friend can make me laugh and have fun and forget about what might be bugging me.

And, heck it's much healthier to ride a bike to get rid of those nagging frustrations than it is to have a stiff drink, right?

Instead of heading to "Cheers" where everybody knows my name so that I can drown my daily worries in a post-work drink (or three), I headed to Pink Lake and drowned my daily worries in a fun bike ride.

My liver will thank me.

Even if right now my legs don't.

Over and out,
Joy