Plans, old and new

I had planned on revisiting the 200 km Subic-Masinloc-Subic randonnee, and that decision was reinforced by people that had said at the time that they would be going as well. Alas, that commitment evaporated at the end, and it was due to this development that I disappointingly had to back out from the ride myself.

While I am confident that I have trained enough to finish the event comfortably, I don’t want to do it while in a less-than-optimal head space. Riding is supposed to be fun; if I can’t keep it fun, I figure I might as well leave the bikes at home. C’est la vie.

On more positive developments, I am grateful for all the readers and visitors that have graced this little blog, and I am continually amazed by your numbers. After three years, I think it’s time to grow The Accidental Randonneur a little. I will be doing things in baby steps, and this may call for a bit of work behind the scenes, but rest assured I will continue delivering bicycle- and riding-related content…and boy, do I have a lot to write about.

Exciting times are ahead.

Just feeling grateful

Some of you, especially regular visitors, may have noticed that my usual cadence of new posts every Friday afternoon has stopped for the past couple of weeks.

There is good reason for that.

Without going into too much detail, I was admitted to the hospital twice, for a total of four days within two weeks. The first visit involved “minor” yet painful surgery, while the second involved post-operational bleeding while I was recovering.

Perhaps most damning is that, due to the nature of my surgery, I’m pretty much off the saddle for at least the coming month and a half. I will just have to focus on recovering — slowly — and accept that I will lose some of my fitness.

I usually try to keep a backlog of posts ready for publishing, but that’s now exhausted and I will have to think up some new content to build that queue up again. And yet, despite the stagnation due to emergency health reasons, I was pleasantly surprised to still see respectable traffic.

When I returned to writing and maintaining a blog with The Accidental Randonneur after a hiatus, I made the conscious decision to avoid delving too much into the personal, and let the glorious sport of cycling speak for itself with me simply acting as a mouthpiece. Some people may know that I’ve been blogging since 2001; those early efforts were almost too personal and ill-advised in this day and age. However, I realize “personal” posts like this are necessary every now and then because there are enough of you out there reading my stuff, and some of you do follow the musings I publish on this little corner of the Internet — for whatever reason.

For that, I want to express my gratitude. The Accidental Randonneur has helped quite a few cyclists maintain their bikes. It also warms my heart to hear that people listen to my reviews and comments on the products I’ve featured here so far…even people directly involved in the bicycle industry. And that’s a huge honor.

I may be sidelined for now, but I’ll do what I can to continue this journey. Thank you for the companionship, fellow randonneurs. Keep riding, and may you have more stories on the saddle.