unironedman

The dust (or should that be silt?) has well and truly settled on the Royal Canal Triathlon. The related blog post, which took nearly as long to write as it did to complete the event, is out now in the world for your delight and delectation.

I felt quite good afterwards, which was pleasing. I suppose the relatively easy pace of the day, plus the terrain, helped there, but given the overall distance covered, I was expecting to be a lot sorer.

With Covid still very much part of our lives, the traditional large ‘event’ won’t be a feature of anyone’s racing calendar for some time. Though the postponed Gaelforce West is still on mine, for next June. I will not tempt any of the many fates by predicting where we might be at that stage.

But between now and then, I am sure there will plenty of running to be done, and hopefully some swimming too, though that will be confined to the pool, I guess.

What I hope to do more of is the bike.

I was chatting about the essence of what makes bike travel so wonderful over the weekend, as Gary and I whizzed down the Royal Canal towpath. We both agreed it was essentially the speed of travel that made getting around on a bike so alluring. I was reminded of that today when I read this description of cycling, on a blog I follow.

The author is Brendan Leonard of Semi-Rad, and you can find the full story online here.

Here’s the quote:

Bike travel, I think, makes the world feel bigger, because its slower pace forces you to pay attention. A town that’s a half an hour away by car or bus can be half a day away via bicycle—both in our backyards as well as halfway around the world. Biking to the next town over wakes you up to things you’ve missed while flying by at 35 mph or 65 mph dozens of times, and the process of exploring your home territory can make the whole place feel bigger. Which is travel, too. But when we’re close to home we usually have our travel brain turned off, and we’re less open to discovery, and wonder. And maybe that’s why we feel bored with where we live, even though it’s probably more interesting than we give it credit for.

Give Brendan a follow. His work is consistently excellent, and he will even get you a Friday fill of fun facts from around the web if you subscribe.

And he produces some great merchandise too. Below is my current favourite T shirt…