Happy Feet and Pink Pedals Day 1, Day 2

Now, I literally just posted the first entry. I am posting tonight about today and yesterday's ride because I want them all to be included in this series, so here we go:

Thursday: I hadn't ridden my bike in months, and to tell you the truth, I felt a little bit of nervousness and I pedaled toward the trail. As soon as I hit the dirt, my nervousness was overcome by adrenaline, and I was immediately reminded why I loved to ride so much in the first place. It was brilliant. I realized how much I'd missed this feeling, this activity, and the freedom that came with it. I spent the whole hour on the trail feeling like a kid in the candy store. Every  corner, every hill, every climb and descent had me wanting to go faster and every near-fall made my heart race a little and my eyes light up. It's a great feeling to find complete and utter happiness in something so simple as riding a bike.

Friday:  I had planned on riding this afternoon, but when a phone call woke me up at nine this morning, I called the weather hotline and couldn't turn down 76 degrees. I got out of bed and headed toward the trail. I was so excited to be going back out for another ride, I didn't even eat my breakfast before I left. I brought the bagel with peanut in the car with me! This is not a good idea, just in case you were planning to try it, but if it meant getting on the trail 10 minutes earlier, then let's do it! Needless to say, I got to the trail and spent the next two and a half hours in the same blissful state as Thursday. I rode faster today, so I was more tired, but I pushed myself through to another lap. I say pushed myself, but it really didn't take any convincing, which is a nice change from the normal ride. I began my second go round with the same excitement as the first. There were no exciting crashes, no "i hate this hill!!" bursts. It was just a good ride. I was worn out when I finished, but not the kind of worn out you get from pushing too hard or doing too much. I felt accomplished and pleased, and I was still excited and happy about riding. I don't think I'll make it to the trail tomorrow, but you better believe Sunday I've got a date with the dirt, and I'm wearing my good spandex!

On a side note, I think I've ridden better the past two days than I ever have. I think the reason for that is, at some point over my couple years on the bike, riding went from something I loved and did for fun to something I did because I wanted to be good and get better. It quit being about loving the sport and having fun. It started being about getting better times and sticking with the guys. But the question is, if you don't love what you're doing, if there's no passion behind your actions, then what's the point? What's the reward? If you're killing yourself for something that you don't love doing, won't you just resent whatever it is in the long run? There's got to be a passion for what you're doing. It's the only way anything is going to be worth while.

Happy Feet and Pink Pedals

I called this "Happy Feet and Pink Pedals" because that's what riding a bike does for me- it makes me happy. Not to mention, it literally makes you smile, but I'm not going to get all scientific on you. That's not the point of this blog. Oh, and I called it that because I have pink pedals. They are incredible; a work of art, but that's not the point either. Here's the thing: 

I rode my bike yesterday for the first time in about five months. It was amazing, and I was reminded why I fell in love with riding in the first place. It felt so good to finally be back on the bike, just me and the trail. I went again today but for twice as long. Same result- pure bliss. I even got so excited that I decided I would do  a mountain bike race called The Six hours of Herb. It's called that because it is a six hour race. Wow. I forgot to mention earlier that when I said I rode twice as long today, I meant that I rode two and a half hours instead of one. I'm only three and a half hours short of being able to complete the race- yay. So, for obvious reasons, I won't win this race. I won't even place. Heck, I am really just hoping to finish. And the truth is, I'm going to finish because there is not a certain amount of laps (one lap equals nine miles) you have to do in order to finish. You just ride as much as you can in the six hours. Technically, I could do one lap and quit, and I would have "finished." Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked.

My goal is just to do the race and not chicken out. I guess the ultimate goal would be to ride four laps, 36 miles, in six hours. Now, if you're any good at all, that's not a good race time, but for me, that would be awesome! I am going to blog about my rides up until the race and then I'll finish this blog series with the race. I guess, in a way, I'm holding myself accountable through this blog. School's about to start though, and I need to find a job. Time is going to be stretched for me and finding time to ride is going to be hard. So hold on. It's going to be a bumpy ride!