I’d thought about having my 初走り ride today, just down to Haneda and back with a brief stop at the office to take care of a telephone configuration that I should have done back in December. And I just … kept putting off getting started this morning. The temperature was one reason, but just being lazy and comfortable was another.

Finally after lunch I got together what I wanted just to get to the office to take care of the phones. Everything fit in the new trunk bag with room to spare, and after making sure I had my office ID and keys, I set off. Almost immediately I was too warm, especially when I was in the bright sunshine in my black jersey and tights. But apart from that, and from feeling sluggish on the climbs, I was doing fine.

There’s a moderate climb right at the start of my ride, and I was hearing a clicking noise with each turn of the cranks. “Oh no, what now?” I thought I’d have to have a look at the crankset, the cogs and the derailleur. It wasn’t until I’d topped the climb and the noise disappeared on the subsequent flat that I figured it out — I had two sets of keys (office and home) hanging from a clasp in the trunk bag, and they were striking together when my pedaling rocked the bike.

I was glad to see the construction has finally been completed on Inokashira Dori, and there are finally two lanes in both directions for the length I ride it. It makes life a lot less frantic.

I reached the office without more than the usual amount of dodging dodgy drivers and pedestrians. The buildings were virtually empty, which is as I’d hoped. The telephone work took only five minutes to complete, and another five to verify, and I was ready for the ride home. It went as smoothly as the ride to the office, and I reminded myself each time I heard something that sounded like a mechanical issue that it was just things banging about in the bag. (I’ll have to remember to isolate the noisy bits between items of clothing and whatnot when I take the bag on longer rides, or the banging about will make me crazy.)

At home and in the shower, I discovered a shallow cut in my thigh, where the blood had already dried. There was a corresponding stain on the tights. It looked exactly as if I’d impaled my thigh on the end of the handlebars, but I didn’t have any recollection of anything like that happening today, and in any case I have proper bar ends that would have blunted any such blow. I still have no idea what happened or when.

Today’s ride was just a commute, and the performance was not greatly different from when I am commuting on a weekday, so I’m not calling today the first ride of the New Year. I’m glad I had the excuse of the telephone fix to get me out of the house and in the saddle, though.