Before I tell you about my first ride on the bike outside in eleven days, let me explain the post title first.

For those long eleven days, I was starting to feel lost. Cycling over the years has become a part of me, a definition of who I am in fact. Without it, I start to feel lost. I start to feel lazy. I start to feel fat. I start to feel 'average' rather than feeling special about myself because of my discipline, training work ethic on a bike and my cycling in general.

I got all that back today in a chilly 36-mile route I will now call the Sunny Slope Climb. I call it that because of a steep climb over the freeway, a monster hill that seems worse when it comes at about 30 miles into an already hilly 36-mile ride.

It's all about that climb heading back. You see it ahead of you, almost taunting you as your legs twitch with hints of cramps from non-use over those eleven days. And today, just as I was thinking about how I would approach this effort with a lot of spin and take it easy, I was shocked to see a guy on a Trek go past me on my left without a word. I never heard him coming.

He was doing about 18 mph on the approach to the climb.

Having nothing in my legs, I certainly wasn't going to chase. Yet you know what happens with the brain! I didn't ramp it up enough to actually chase him down, but the effort was steady enough to keep me about a quarter block behind.

Here's the cool part.

I was actually hanging with him up the climb, and in fact, at the top had closed the gap, eventually catching him on the desent. Not bad at all. He turned while I had to head straight. It was a solid ending to a solid comeback effort.

Now it's all about putting miles into the legs and saddle time. The weather indicates that there should be a dry stretch of several days in a row now that I should be able to ride in.

Last year this was Easter weekend, and I did a solo 72 miles out to our lake house and back. There's no way I could have done that today, so I figure I'm behind where I was last year at this time. But at least I've found myself again out there on the road today!

Sunday, we hit it again and see what happens!