Therapy on Wheels....

Today has been a trying day once again.  It started off well enough with me cranking away on the second half of a large project for a client of mine.  I made great progress today and managed to go from nothing to completed drawings ready to be sent off for review in about six hours.  A few hours later I got a phone call from my client.  The project I spent six hours on...  big hit!  The project I've spent weeks on...   underwhelmed.  Ugh.  Sometimes you just can't win.  This particular project is a complete scenic and lighting design for a large conference.  I know that in reality its going to be a big hit when the client sees it in person.  My mind can make the leap from virtual reality in the form of a computer rendered simulation to what the final product will look like.  My client can not.  We've reached an impass.  They either have to go with what I've done, or look elsewhere.  Theres nothing else I can do at this point.  And all of the above is to say that today was intensely frustrating.

So around 4ish I was in such a mood that I decided despite the fact that this was supposed to be a day off and a recovery week I was going out on the bike.  It was pretty grey, overcast, drizzly and foggy today.  Being that it would be starting to get dark during my ride I decided to ride the bike path figuring it would be safer and my mind was too unfocused to ride at dusk in traffic.  So I stayed within the safe confines of the bike path.  Fortunatley the weather was bad enough to keep most people away so I had the path largely to myself other than the company of a few bike commuters.  I told myself this would be a recovery ride at an easy pace.  But I just wasn't in the headspace for a recovery ride.  So instead I rode angry..... and fast.  Granted the bike path is fairly flat but my speed largely stayed at 20mph+ for the entire 26 mile ride.  Even into the slight headwind.  I was intensely frustrated... so I channelled all of that energy into the pedals.  Time flew by and it wasn't long till I was in Bristol and out of bike path.  So I turned around and headed back towards East Providence where the car was parked.

The ride back was into the slight wind for a fair amount of it and I just stared at the speedo and did my best to crank away and hold it at 20+ as much as I could.  In the final mile on the bike path theres a steep but small hill to deal with.  I'll often throw it down to the small ring for this hill.  Not today...  today I stayed in the big ring, stood on the pedals and fought my way angrily up the hill as if it wasn't there.  That felt good.  At the top of the hill I finally allowed myself to relax and casually spin my way through the last half mile to the parking lot.  I felt much better.

Now back in my office and after another phone call I'm back to stress of it all.  But at least for those 26 miles on the bike I was away from it all.  Some people sit on a couch and talk to a professional....   I get on the bike or go for a run.