A Building- and Biking-Filled Weekend

Although it was a bit brisk, we had nice sunny weather here in Boston all weekend. I was finally able to take full advantage of it, despite a bout of 24-hour flu that sent me to bed by 7pm on Saturday night.

I spent all day Saturday in Lawrence, MA at the Habitat build site there. We worked on a set of houses that were originally built in the 1880's on Market St. Lawrence used to be a thriving mill town, but has since become a pretty economically-depressed area of Massachusetts. We got a little taste of history itself, though, when a man walking by stopped in to ask if he could look around. Turns out his great-grandparents used to own the property we were working on. He was impressed and happy with the developments. I wasn't really aware that Habitat worked both on new construction and renovation projects, but as property values increase and availability of property decreases, it makes sense in some places to work with what you've already got. Both houses has been fully gutted down to the bare frame. I worked on installing fire-proof foam insulation all day using a pretty cool insulation gun. Everyone envied my job ;)

Saturday night I felt pretty ill for the first time in a very long time, so I laid low and went to bed early in hopes that I'd be able to go on the planned training ride on Sunday morning. After 12 hours of sleep and finally acquiring an appetite for breakfast, I felt up for the 40-60 mile ride a few of the Boston-area Bike and Builders had planned. We met at 10am at MIT and rode out to Weston, Walden Pond, Concord, and back through Cambridge and Memorial Drive (past the Walk for Hunger). The loop ended up around 45 miles and (thankfully) at the end I felt like I could have easily done more.

On the rumination side of things (spending 4 and a 1/2 hours on the bike give you time to think): two thoughts.
One. The human body is a pretty amazing thing. A healthy human body is incredibly amazing. How my body was able to, in a 24 hour period, go from feeling that each step taken was a labor and a decision, to being able to cycle 45 (could have been more!) miles blows my mind.
Two. Waking up early twice this weekend to go straight out to my bike and ride the roads before the masses made me so excited for this summer. I am starting to get glimpses of what it will really be like. Can't wait to make imagination a reality.