Perspective thoughts ...

As I peck out these words I'm sitting in our home, looking out over a few dipping valleys and buttes toward the horizon filled with taller mountains.  Sunsets are crimson along the rim of the full horizon.  The temperature is around 81, humidity 30%.  Rolling thunder in the distance though there is just a mild overcast.  The `monsoon' months of July and August.  Cools off and the humidity drops in September.  Sweater season starts December for a few months.  Some snow at times amounting to several inches but it all melts away in days.  A few really cold nights (7 degrees) just to remind us that we're 5,625 feet high.

There could not be a more dramatic difference from Chicago just less than 10 days ago.  Our Chicago friends report temps in the 98 degrees and humidity to match.  "It's hard to even breathe here."  Chicago reported the most rainfall in any 24 hour period in recorded history yesterday: as much as 7 inches in some places. 

Here, `home' in Prescott, we're finding that the altitude adjustment is subtle but progressing nicely.  Afternoon naps a must.

Taking off from our front door yesterday I rode just under 13 miles in 1:14:00.  This works out to an average incline of 2%.  But it doesn't reflect the fact that much of the route was comprised of 4 - 8% inclines, reaching into the double digit inclines on several occasions.  On the way back I reached 41.3 mph on a slowly twisting downhill stretch.  Friday Training Ride

THEN:

• My `job' required me to be sitting 11 hours per day.   
• I sat another 2 hours commuting no less than 75 miles each day to and from my practice.  Fuel for my pickup was rarely less than $450 each month.   
• And when I needed to train for long hours I'd have to pack the bike into the pickup and drive 105 miles, round trip, to the flat and rural farmland roads. 
• I rarely saw the front of our house because the garage was in the back and I had to drive everywhere. 
• Shopping and going to stores required navigating heavy traffic almost all times of the day.  
• Sitting in our back yard we couldn't hear one another speak because of the airline jets flying in and out of O'Hare Airport, the freight train and commuter train lines (2!) half  block away, and two major interstate highways half a block away.  

NOW:

• I don't commute at all.  
• We can't move 10 yards from our home without going uphill or downhill.  
• Everything is within 4 miles of our house (downhill).  
• I ride from my front door to train on both hills and flats.  
• Our second story porch faces the west and we sometimes whisper so as not to disturb the humming birds nearby.  
• Cars and vehicles are quarantined/restricted to a nearby parking area, leaving the meandering road in front of our home free for people to walk, sit in the small park in front of our house, sometimes stop and chat with one another.
• My first night here I woke up because it was too quiet.  
• We saw a handful of shooting stars last night.
• My body is adjusting to the reality of not sitting for half the day; I'm sometimes tired, even sore.  But less and less each day. 
• On days when I'm not training on the bike I'm doing errands and getting our house together, climbing hills, carrying things, walking to and from the city center, Farmer's Market, etc.... 

Though this is a more substantial physical experience than I had anticipated ... it makes all the sense in the world.  I have my body back all day, every day.  And there is no time, mileage, urban barrier to keep me from doing what is needed or wanted.