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.
After Tuesday’s 20-mile mountain bike beatdown to my out of shape body, I took a break. The break was not planned but it wasn’t unplanned either. It sort of happened like this…
To be 1,000% completely honest, the whole reason I got into cycling 20+ years ago was to mountain bike. It didn’t start out like that of course, I was fat(ter) then and needed to get in reasonable shape before I even thought about a life pedaling on dirt, but once that happened, and I finally rode singletrack, I was ALL in.
