I was supposed to go to Mike’s in Jabłonka tonight – well, I told him I might. But I was simply too tired, for I rode my bike back from Nowy Targ today: a 40+ kilometer ride that I did in two hours, forty minutes. It was an utterly exhausting experience. Just after you get out of Nowy Targ there is a long stretch of road which is straight with slight hills, most of which are slight inclines than ever really present the welcome downhill slope I was seeking. I must say that I felt a little like Sysyphus, for each time I got to the top of one hill, another loomed in the distance.

I felt such astoundingly intense pain in my legs at some points. My thighs burned for the last hour and a half and my left knee began aching after a while. Yet I knew there was no way I could stop. What choice did I have? Yet the utter necessity of the journey did nothing for my legs.

Of course that was not enough pain for me – I went to Danuta’s about an hour after I got back home. I did not know that the whole six kilometers are a gradual slope . . . upwards. The pain in my legs returned and only intensified as I went along. The advantage is that the return trip was much faster and with a little less pain.