Night Time Is The Right Time

After weeks of being sick, I finally felt good enough to pedal my bike around in the woods.  I’m still not one hundred percent, but I’m good enough to spin the ol’ legs a bit.  I’ve been organizing night rides every Tuesday, but I skipped last week because of my illness.  I didn’t want to disappoint the regular crew we have out there, so I made sure I didn’t miss another one.

I almost screwed the whole thing up though.

I’m working far away from that particular trail this month, so I loaded up my truck with everything I needed for a nighttime mountain bike adventure.  Bike, helmet, shoes, gloves, cycling-specific clothing, etc.  As I rolled out from work with plenty of time to get to the trail though, I realized that I forgot one important thing…

Lights.

Since lights are pretty much required when riding trails at night, I decided to head back home to get them and hopefully get to the trail on time.  In my weakened condition, I didn’t feel like I could ride the trail Jedi style.  On the way home, the thought crossed my mind to just stay there and abandon the ride.  That would mean disappointing the folks I ride with, plus it would be yet another day without riding.  Damn that.  I needed to be on my bike.

I made it home, grabbed my bag o’ lights, and made the mad dash through traffic to get to the trail.  It pretty much sucked to get there, but I made it on time.  In fact, I was the first one there.  The rest of the crew showed up one by one, and we headed out into the darkness.

I felt pretty good for not using my legs in a while.  My lungs actually felt great, and I led us around at a pace that was good for all of us.  Thinking I would only get one lap in, we huddled up at the end of the trail to discuss our next move.  At that moment I realized that I was down for another lap.

I didn’t lead this one, because I wanted to take it easy.  The pace was much faster this time, and I didn’t really have any problem keeping up.  My legs felt a little squishy, but they had ample power to get me through the darkness at a quick pace.  We did two laps and I felt pretty damn good, even though I’m still a little sick.

It was so freaking awesome to get out and ride.  Maybe I should do it again sometime.