I don’t always ride two days in a row, but when I do, I make sure it’s the only two days I ride all week.
Having said that, those two rides—although be it just 20 and 22 miles in length—were two of the best rides I’ve had all year.
I have no doubt the rides were a perfect storm of rest, diet, motivation, weather, and road conditions, but these two rides (and last week’s back to back mountain/gravel rides) have had me feeling more my old self—the good parts of my old self, not the parts I see the O.G. Mindbender for.
I went into climbs (small pubic mounds of gravel road) with power, I energetically chased down distant mailboxes, I double-checked that I wasn’t just riding a tailwind, and I pinched my chubby arm to make sure I wasn’t dreaming of life 50 pounds ago. And for two days in a row, I felt no urge to sit my sweaty ass on the Garage Step of Crap Fitness Reflection.
Denver Road barn and corn letting me know that I’m riding into a headwind.
Friday’s ride needed to be done quickly to make an afternoon appointment, so I opted for a quick out and back. I’ve talked at length about my distaste for out and back rides in the past, and how they make me feel like someone who votes Red, calls their wife “mother,” has sex under the covers, and thinks that trimming up the twig in berries is a sin. I still don’t like an out and back ride, but I do recognize that I can control the time, length, and other variables a bit more with an Out and Back Better Than the Trainer Ride™ (also known by the easy to say acronym—O.A.B.B.T.T.T.R.™).
“PC Load Letter? What the f*ck does that mean?” – Michael Bolton
I had intended to ride singletrack on Saturday, but it didn’t happen. Partly because I was pretty stoked about how I felt during the aforementioned. O.A.B.B.T.T.T.R.™, and partly because I was lazy and wanted to be back by 3 PM for the Champions League matches on TV.
I ditched the out and back, rode my bike in a nice squared loop, took a few photos, and felt surprisingly good on the bike again.
Dude is so high!!
After the ride, I made a not-so-quick trip to the store for food, watched footy, and worked on the photos I took over the past few days, including those from Thursday’s trip to the Sylvan preserve that will be posted when Macro Monday makes its return on Monday (no shit).
As for Sunday. Well, I got up with the dogs at 8:00 AM, then laid back down for what was to be a few minutes and woke up 3.5 hours later. Not sure how or why that happened, but now it’s hot, humid, and windy, I’m currently writing this shit, and I have to mow the vast (not really) estate of the Cul-De-Sac-Shack.
Mobile gimp/hump shack.
Looking forward to the coming week’s two days in a row rides. May they be as sweet as this week’s and hopefully longer.
Later.