Today I went for a ride after yesterday’s butt kicking on the out of town trail. It was a beautiful day and the air was cool in the morning. I could not pass up this amazing weather. My original Plan A was to time it to meet a few friends and ride one or two trails with them. But, I timed it wrong and missed them completely. So while I was out there, I decided on Plan B, to do a long endurance ride. And, so I started out on the first trail. Wow, I was tired. I hadn’t even gotten halfway around when I was feeling really spent. Legs tired, arms tired, breathing heavy. Okay, let’s just turn around here and ride an easier trail to start the day. So I headed down to the easiest trail we have thinking, perhaps I just need a good long warm up.
As I entered the trail, I was still feeling like a weakling. So I came up with Plan C. I would do my endurance ride, but I would do it super slow and work different muscles that way. It’s amazing how you end up finding all these back up plan options in your arsenal that you didn’t even know you had when you seek excuses. But, bottom line was, the weather was too nice and I didn’t want to go home without enjoying a good ride. I finished the first leg of the outbound of the trail. I exited into the parking lot and this is where Plan D reared its ugly head. I looked down at the hill and saw the marina. I saw kayaks out on the lake. I thought, you know what, you are really not into this ride, why not salvage it by making it enjoyable and spending some time gazing out at the water for a little bit. It can’t hurt to take a mid ride break for a change and just enjoy the scenery for a bit right? Wrong. Water gazing while basking in the warm sunlight makes a person lazy. I know! It surprised me too.
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| The Scenery that Lured Me In. |
I sat down for about 25 minutes and enjoyed the solitude from a rock on the lake bed and then I had to summon the strength to turn back around to the return ride home. Normally, this is no more than a 30 minute ride back to the car and if I want to, I can fly through it in even less time than that if I push. Today, those 4.5 miles felt like they were going to be 45. I reluctantly put my helmet back on, groaned a little and threw my leg over my saddle where I slowly pedaled back up the hill to the trail head. I actually contemplated calling my husband and asking him to pick me up. Yes, it was that bad. But, luckily my pride would never let me do something like that so I headed back into the woods. Once on the trail, I felt rejuvenated. I think the little lake gazing timeout did me good. Before I knew it, I was back at my car loading it up again and heading home. Phew, that was a close one. But, after all that, I still got a good ride in anyway. And all that, despite the rocky start to begin with on a trail that has no rocks. Ah, the irony.
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