Doing good activities

The only thing I thought I'd want to do this past weekend was my somewhat more than annual ride from my house to the US National Whitewater Center, all the trails, and back.  Always seems like a good activity when pursuing fitness.  The downside being that the Tuckfest was going on, what with its running, cycling, and water related events... and the music and food and beer that always seems to bring every mother tucker out of the woodwork.

Woke up Saturday, and the trail status... closed.  Decision made for me. I'll just ride the Backyard Trails instead.  A couple hours later, status changed.  Open.  Shit.  Look at the event schedule and figure out if it's gonna interfere with me riding all the trails.  Looks like I can get around the civilians.  Guess I'm going.

Out the door at 11:30.  Ran into Brent from Big Pig Racing on his way to look at a couple Chevelles in a junkyard.  We kept each other company at a single speed friendly pace until we had to part ways.  Then it was back to riding right into a headwind by myself.  Seventeen miles after leaving the house, I hit the access trail at the front of the park.

Jumped on the new Academy Trail first because I couldn't wait to see the finished product (I'd ridden it when it was 80% finished).  Beautiful.  An incredible addition.  Now the rest of all the things.

I didn't have any idea how many miles of trail would be open.  The last few times I'd been there, this/that/the other was shut down for whatever reason.  Not this time.  Everything was open.  It was a long day, and at points, I wondered why the hell I was doing this.  Fitness.  The "season."  Why not?

I finished up all the things feeling pretty spent.  Sat down in the grass by the water fountains and ran into Chris W. from my neighborhood.  We've lived less than a mile from each other for close to (or more than) a decade.  Never ridden together once.  Odd.  We discussed this anomaly, and I explained that most weekends I have plans or an entire lack thereof.  I don't want someone waiting on me to figure out what I'm doing at the last second every other weekend.  Thus, I ride alone on those occasions.

Anyways, long slog home.. but with the wind at my back.  My ride took me right through the center of Uptown, and who knew there was a playoff game going on?  Not me.  Traffic.  On my mountain bike ride.  Straight through my "office."

Meh.  Past The Spoke Easy, no familiar bikes outside.  Same at the Common Market.  I guess my celebratory beers will be drank alone when I get home.

On Sunday, I offered to go to the greenway with The Pie and support her on one of her longer runs.  Carry liquid refreshment and kinda show her how to get around on all the trails.  I suppose this was a proper spin after a hard day in the saddle.  Dunno.  Never done it before.  My couch is just that comfortable. It was strange just soft pedaling all around and looking at things I'm normally cruising by at Mach 3 on my early morning pre-work jaunts. 

But pleasant.  I can see why people just ride slow sometimes.  Not all the time tho.