In the tapestry of life, the threads of health, fitness, and well-being are often woven in the crucible of experience. As I stand on the precipice of a new year, I cannot help but cast my gaze backward at the insane business mileage traversed across 2023.

Life sometimes presents unexpected obstacles impeding my two-wheeled adventures. In the past couple of days, the morning rain and my demanding work schedule converged, causing a temporary hiatus in my renewed cycling routine.

I returned from Dubai last week Saturday at basically midnight only to hop on a flight to Seoul for a week about 30 hours later on Monday morning. After sacrificing Saturday to recover from sleep deprivation, today at dawn I mounted my fat ass on Red Chameleon for my first ride in way too long.

It has been far too long since my last post here at Saiklr, and that is entirely attributed to a swift ramp-up of business travel in 2022. This led to literally no additional free time to work on the site, as the work-life balance was far more important to focus on family rather than writing.

It took about ten days to get back out on the tarmac, but after a couple hellaciously busy weeks and a small vacation to get in some hiking, Red Chameleon and I finally got to see some action.

I have really been yearning for some time off the grid, and finally got an opportunity to take some vacation. Instead of just chilling at home, we headed up to Kamikochi in Nagano to finally conquer a long desired hike, and it was a complete blast.

The good news is I was finally able to get out on the tarmac for some limited spinning on this sad and soggy Sunday morning. The bad news is the rain ultimately hindered what would have otherwise been an outstanding ride.

Thursday a supremely late night, and Saturday morning I had an early morning appointment and did not ride. I will ride Sunday morning, the last pre-hiking ride before heading to Nagano for an unabashed, unplugged, wonderfully joyful wilderness jaunt.