After nearly a week or more of being off the bike due to weather, a weekend of soccer tournament festivities, and other crank blocks I finally got some saddle time in on Wednesday.
I did a loop south of town and it felt great to be back in the saddle. Due to some issues with the Boone, it wasn’t the saddle I thought it was going to be, but the PrOcal’s saddle is still a saddle and I was in it, that’s all that matters.
At the end of my last post, I talked about heading into the woods to do something stupid that morning. Me doing something stupid in the woods might lead readers to believe that I was going to be cooking up meth in an abandoned hunting blind or having sex with a woodpecker hole riddled tree carcass. While both of those things are stupid, and more than a little fun to entertain thoughts of doing, I did not. It was stupider.
After two days of stomping around various woods and nature preserves in mid-Michigan, I finally got out to ride some dirt roads south of town on Wednesday.
I had put off riding the dirt roads for a couple days due to multiple overnight rains and from my experiences yesterday that was a good idea!
I woke up Tuesday morning to find that we once again enjoyed another night of rain. Yeah! More muddy dirt roads and more fuel for the ever growing grass of my yard which I seem to be mowing twice a week these days.
With little motivation for riding on the muddy dirt roads, and even less to deal with cars on the paved roads, I put my camera’s battery on charge and waited for the caffeine to do its job before heading out for some more time stomping around the wet woods.
Monday’s are usually a shit show for me, and this Monday would try its hardest to bring fecal matter to the dick-tip of this week’s production, but I counter attacked with some fecalness of my own. WIN!
Right out of the gate I had an 8 AM appointment with my eye doctor. Afterward, I would have plenty of time to ride, fuck about, or actually get some work done, but I declined. Instead, I packed my camera and boots and after my appointment, I drove straight to the Neithercut Woodlands about 25 minutes north of town to get a few miles of hiking in.
Me last week:
I know that some back and hip pain a few years ago, combined with the lack of a need to “train,” derailed my mountain biking but I’m not sure when I just gave up on it. In any event, I don’t plan on letting that happen anymore. I am promising myself to return to riding trails once a week at the very least.
The great thing about being a non-racing, chubby dad-bod type cyclist is that sometimes, even on a perfect spring day in Michigan, you can say “Fuck it, I don’t feel like riding.” Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do something outside.
[PHOTO OF BARN,DIRT ROAD, COW OR SOME SUCH FARM ANIMAL HERE]
I had hoped to return to the dirt roads for some miles on Tuesday morning, but heavy thunderstorms overnight and morning rain had me thinking otherwise. The idea of the fresh dirt put down by the county combined with heavy rain was not something I felt like putting myself—or my drivetrain—through. So, I headed into the wet woods to stomp out a couple of miles with my camera before getting home to do what I do. Which is hard to put into words, so I won’t.
As I assumed, the weekend was void of anything other than traveling to and from and watching soccer games at B’s tournament. That’s fine with me; I love watching him play and his team won the U14 Division Championship. The competition wasn’t as strong as they’re used to facing in league play but it was still a good time.
