A little about all the time we have been spending on our mountain bikes lately. It has been great, as the picture below obviously shows....
Besides the night riding, we have been trying to get a longer ride in on Saturdays. 20 miles is pretty darn long on a mountain bike at Indian Springs. Last Saturday we set out to ride even more in preparation for a big race. We have some awesome mtn bike friends. Nine of us started up Dry Gulch at 11:00. I wasn't even the only girl this time! My road bike idol, Celia, came along too!
My legs felt heavy from the start. I started my "winter" workout plan last week. This includes running and going to the gym with Jill. Jill has a stack of weight training workouts that the devil himself probably constructed. I love every minute of it (especially talking with Jill) but they are dang hard and my legs were feeling every single one of those lunges and squats as I pedaled my bike up the trail.
This happened just 15 miles in. It is just steep and loose here. I usually can ride it....
Soooooo glad the gang was just above me watching every bit of it. Not embarrassing at all.
A little break.
Lance, me, then Celia coming up Dry Gulch.
Terry and A.B.
To make a long day into a short story.... we started out with 9 people, one joined us, then one broke his front fork, one crashed and tore open his knee, one had just had enough, one was heading to church, and another just plain tired out....in the end there were three of us who finished out close to 40 miles. It was actually something like 38.8. That is a stinking long way on a mountain bike at Indian Springs. Just trust me on this. I crashed four times. Toward the end I was just. so. tired. I had a time when I separated from the group and rode up the road (when I say up I do mean UP) to miss a section of technical trail. I just didn't trust my legs right then. I met up with Darren and AB, the two lone men left, at Hot Shot Trail. I had a moment when I got a little "misty eyed" (as my brothers would put it). I talked inside my head about what was wrong. I was suddenly terrified of getting really hurt.
Then two things happened. I ate some more food, and I dug deep inside and told myself to buck up. I think I was doubting my ability to really ride this far. I had already decided it was beyond my ability. The only way to end this ride was to RIDE.
Darren and AB were so positive, and pretended not to see my next two crashes. They would yell up the trail, "We didn't see that either!" They were more like "fall overs", I was just riding scared! I am a much better rider than that. (SIDENOTE: just two days ago I cleaned that trail, including the BIG DROP on Hot Shot, and the technical section I opted out of before. I'm just sayin')
By the time we dropped into Dry Gulch I was in much better spirits. The fall colors were amazingly vibrant. I asked myself where else would I rather be, and miss all this? I shifted in to an easy gear and headed up Matt's. AB told me jokes about snails to keep my mind off of my legs. I was laughing out loud! SOOOOO glad I finished out!
After arriving home, we quickly headed out for some Cafe Rio. I had to drive - Darren was fading! He said I looked like I fared better than he had! I actually felt pretty good, especially after getting some real food in me!
So, why do we ride? Why do I continually push myself into these situations that sometimes seems less than ideal?
I found a quote in a recent issue of Bike magazine in an article titled, "An appeal for us to keep it real" by Don Stefanovich:
"We waste away in cubicles and on couches, air conditioned and coddled, and it becomes difficult to rememeber that air is better experienced in copious quantities between rubber and dirt rather than force-fed through a fan.
We labor over taxes, budgets and the ever-impossible task of stretching one paycheck to the next, but somehow forget the simple math that dictates one track is greater than two.
From time to time, it becomes necessary to keep it real. There is a truly profound wisdom and joy found in the notion that what goes up, must come down, and no better way to discover that nugget of knowledge than on a bike, a real bike, outside, tire to trail. Here, the ride is what's real. You are not pedaling to burn calories. You are pedaling to overcome the obstacles in the trail in front of you. You are pedaling to reach the summit. You are pedaling to earn your turns.
Your reward is admiring the view afforded from whatever grand mound of dirt you've just ascended, and knowing your own two legs carried you this far from the world - so far that your day-to-day life lurking somewhere below in the concrete and stucco landscape is no longer recognizable."
Love it. Love that overcoming the obstacles in the trail leads to a quiet confidence for me in overcoming the obstacles of everyday. It helps remind me that I can do hard things. Like riding down the BIG DROP on Hot Shot, and holy cow, what is harder and scarier than that? Truthfully, lots of things are. But if I can do one, I can certainly do the rest, right?
