My Garmin 500 shit the bed like Spud from Trainspotting last week, and no longer mounts up on my Mac. Despite hours of Googling, scouring bike forums, multiple resets, bitching, moaning, and nearly smashing it to pieces with a meat hammer, it just refuses to cooperate. Since then I’ve felt completely lost on the where’s, when’s, and what’s of my riding. Yes, those rides could probably be summed up with words like crap, crapper, and crappier, but I like to actually see the multiple layers of statistical crap on my computer screen.
Because of that lack of tracking, I feel like I have no idea what I’ve done this week. I know I rode my fatty one, day, rode the Boone the other, and took some crap photos, but the memories are just a blur of dirt, gravel, and pavement with a splash of hip and low back pain thrown in to make the rides even crapper.
I sort of remember not riding on Friday, choosing to focus on some house chores and errands, along with going to the chiropractor so as to keep throwing money down the drain in useless attempt to fix my lower back. I also remembered that my back and hip hurt on Thursday’s dirt road ride, something it rarely does on dirt road rides. Many folks would choose times like this to rest and ice their back. I chose to say “f*ck it,” and make plans to ride my mountain bike in the woods on Saturday, ’cause it really couldn’t get much worse.
I knew going in that the ride wouldn’t be that great, but I was still stoked to get in the woods on the Superfly. However I was less stoked to have my ride waylaid by hearing our home’s AC buzzing, not working, and needing to contact a repair person for the second time in the past two weeks. Because of that AC drama, I got sidetracked and about two miles from the trail head I realized I forgot my water bottles at home. SHIT! With that I needed to stop at a nearby gas station to pick up a bottle cage sized Ghetto-Aid® to use during the ride.
I also failed to take a camera, not even my little s95, so I had to use my iPhone. The ride was NOT off to a great start!
Despite the failures and stress leading up the ride, once I actually got on the trail things started to get better. Yes, I stilled needed to stop every so often due to my back and hip, and no, I didn’t do a full lap, but time spent in the woods is always good, even when it’s not.
Using the Superfly FS helps a ton. While I love the PrOcal, the FS allows me to relax my back and stretch out more on the bike when riding in the woods. The PrOcal is a bit more unforgiving, and sitting and relaxing too much will have one feeling like they just received a colonoscopy by their bike saddle.
On the plus sided I rode about 13.5 miles of the 16+ mile loop, spent time in the woods, blew off some stress, and beat the heavy rains that moved in just an hour or so after I finished.
This week I’m hoping to either pick up a new Garmin (or similar device), or learn to use the Map My F*cking Ride™ app when riding. Then maybe I won’t get some mentally lost.
Later.