Perfecto

I’m starting to ride again, and I think it’s working.

I actually felt like climbing steep trail today. That’s a new sensation for me.

I started climbing the road to Lookout Mountain, but I was feeling so good that I turned off onto Chimney Gulch Trail at my earliest opportunity. Instead of sitting, spinning and fearing the inevitable tightening of my legs, I was standing, riding out of granny-gear and loving it. I got a tiny bit tired by the top, but I really can’t describe how good that felt.

Temperature was perfect. Rain was around, but I never got any.

I rode Enchanted Forest down, then out of plan and out of character (as of late), I turned to climb the switchbacks up to Grubstake Loop. There are a few technical spots on the way up. My attention was focused on cleaning the rocks. So much so that I didn’t notice the rattlesnake laying right at the top. I stopped my front tire 2 inches from him. He didn’t flinch, didn’t rattle. I cut the switchback on foot to get around him.

Riding my Behemoth has never been so much fun. If you’ve got a little strength that bike is amazingly fun to climb.

Cruising the contoured sections of Grubstake I thought “If only I could do a ride like this every day.” It seemed like the perfect ride — and enough that I’d be satisfied by it indefinitely. It’s true that I’ve been missing the two-wheeled goodness as of late, but I quickly realized how foolish that thought was.

Yes, the ride was a good one. Good trails, perfect temperatures, few people out, et cetera. However, the true reason the ride was so good was because of my mental state and the weeks previous. Climbing and feeling (some approximation of) strong felt so good only because I hadn’t felt that way in some time. In order to duplicate the awesome feeling of the ride I’d have to NOT ride, have bum legs, and get cabin fever sitting around for days. Put differently, that ride would get boring and the novelty of feeling ~strong would soon wear off.

I know this, and it’s actually a good thing. It’s what keeps cycling so interesting. I’m always dreaming about the next new trail, the unexplored mountain, and the next big challenge.

But for now I’ll just be happy with being able to ride anything, any time and with some approximation of strength.