Riding at Night

Last weekend I had found my lighting system.  I had been looking for this for quite sometime & when I brought down the Christmas decorations, it was in the same box as the Christmas lights.  I was happy to find it because this meant that I would still be able to ride outdoors for a bit longer & not be a prisoner to the trainer as of yet.  I charged up both batteries & made sure that the entire system still worked.  The system worked great & so I thought I would give it a try up at my parent's house the following Monday night.  I used to commute to work quite regularly when I was working in Macon & really enjoyed riding during the dark.  It's a totally different feeling when riding in the dark.  You have to become more attuned to your surroundings & listen more carefully so you won't get run over by either a vehicle or some kind of animal jumping out in front of you.  I decided on a loop near my parent's house that wouldn't be too busy with traffic.  I mounted the lights, tail light, & wore my neon yellow wind vest for extra visibility.  I chose the wind vest over the reflective vest I have for this ride because it was still about 70 degrees out & the reflective vest makes it quite warm during the ride while wearing it.  The headlights worked great & the traffic really wasn't as big a hassle as I thought it might be on one of the roads.  This route is good because it has some steady uphill sections on it & I can vary the route so it won't get boring.  I rode two laps of this course & it took me an hour to complete it.  My legs felt good during the ride & the uphill section wasn't as bad as I though it would be.  I feel I'm getting stronger on the hills, but I still have a long way to go yet.  All in all it was certainly better to ride outside at night than to be stuck on the trainer.