27th September
I wrote last night's blog this morning. Sometimes waves of fatigue prevail. Not only do they wash over me like damp linen, clagging me; I feel a cable tie around my thoughts stuttering my ability to think and my body powers down to zero. I am alone. There is no one to help me here.
Mindfulness is a new word to describe an 'in-the-moment' experience. Once it was called 'focus,' now perhaps expressed in a deeper way. I am hyper vigilant but not in a dysfunctional way. I have high responsiveness's to stimuli and a constant scanning of the environment but no overt arousal or anxiety. I find an extreme attention to every point of detail is somehow chemically bonded to my thoughts. I can't let go. Everything about my ride from the subcutaneous muscle movement rippling in my legs to how I scan in minute detail each action I make is instantly relayed to my senses so nothing pierces my protective bubble and I feel safe. Does this make sense?
A Bit of Info
The Lombardy region is located between the Alps mountain range and tributaries of the river Po, and includes Milan, the largest metropolitan area in the country, and among the largest in the European Union. Of the fifty-eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Italy, eleven are in Lombardy. Virgil, Pliny the Elder, Ambrose, Gerolamo Cardano, Caravaggio, Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Stradivari, Cesare Beccaria, Alessandro Volta and Alessandro Manzoni; and popes John XXIII and Paul VI originated in the area of modern-day Lombardy region.
And yet. Out in the Plains of Lombardy there are quieter moments when I am closer to where I want to be. Tractors scratch away the sugar beet stubble to place down a winter crop but much is quiet. The back roads of Lombardy have dream routes, all right angles and straight lines like the shape of the fields. I long for my rides here and can only think of repeating whatever it is that makes me enjoy this ride so.
Map of the Day Casalmaggiore to Bologna
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