falling

Something to think about i suppose?

A break from the doom and rage and sadness and futility

 

 there's also this one: only a minute and damn do i want to go out in the woods and swoop and flow, let the bike soak it up, push that front tire into the corner, hit the line just right or not right but still ride it out, launch off the rocks, pump through the whoops... the sound of the tire on the soil, the rocks, powering through that slight up hill turn and leaning back with the dropper down... I think that dropper is kind of the key - the bike is very much a BMX with monster truck wheels and a suspension fork. It flows, it rolls, and it is fun.

PFlax had a bit over on twitter - saying he doesn't understand loading the bike up and driving to ride.

I was absolutely like that. Still am.

for anything but mountain biking.

Sure I have trails outside the house- not a ton but some.

And no i don't generally drive to a ride unless it is a mtb one. so until basically August I drove to a ride maybe twice a year (not counting races). 

cycle swung back round again. i'm driving more to ride than I am riding if you exclude commuting. My miles are down but my riding hours are way up. 

the discussion last night was more about pointing out that in the woods you don't have to think of the deplorables driving death machines and zero regard for any life...  you have to focus on the line, pedaling, the weight it lifts is amazing and sort of one of those things you don't realize you're carrying around until it is lifted off your shoulders.

The bike path is great but it is a hyper awareness zone most of the time, hoards of maskless people, children, dogs, strollers, motorized skateboards, throttle e-bikes, joggers, walkers, groups...  it is different.

And yeah...

I want to go rip on the MTB right now...  And yeah, I think about falling, but I am also not racing, and i have nothing to prove to anyone, not even myself. I've messed up and come close a few times to big time yardsales...  but same can be said on the CX bike in the woods...  

Nothing's changed. 

But man I really don't feel like I'm this close to a half a century old. That's f'n OLD. Okay so it isn't THAT old but for me that dawning reality is sinking in. Was caught in a cross chat with a guy turning 53 or 54, he wanted to ride his age in miles and keep the average over 20 mph. I'm looking at him and thinking, damn do I look that old? 

I don't feel that old. 

And now for some reason I kind of want to ride somewhere with miles of descending....  Like that first taste of MTB single track in Ashland way back a million years ago.

We'd finish up class with Ron at UBI, and we'd all ride up to the top... and then back down. We rode up the fire road, granny gear, suffering, heavy rigid bikes...And then we'd turn and point down hill...  Felt like it took us two hours to climb and 10 minutes to go down. I don't know what the reality of it was. We just rode because it was fucking fun. 

it is only tuesday though... i think...  

gonna top up the water, and head home in the heat, it is hot...  too hot... the AC (at least we have that) is running non-stop. Kind of like the furnace in the winter when it is windy and super cold. Need to figure that out next...  or add it to the list of shit to fix in the house before too long.

Not much sense in delaying the heat anymore...  time to ride - it is only 90°F out there right now - not so bad...

amor fati motherfuckers

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