1000 Words again!

Epic trail ride

Looks like another thousand word day! Yesterday was a blast. A few local epic days. Well, epic for me, at least. Riding knee deep in river water on a bike at midnight and paintball. Really fun. I’m getting ready for my next yoga class right now, Gentle Yoga, I’m subbing for a fellow yogini I know here at Lifetime and wondering how fast I can type out a grand and what I might talk about today. There is always so much to talk about. Some might be extemporaneous wanderings of my linear mind, dull philosophical epithets or social commentaries; others might be a blathering of the activities I have been up to which may make your eyes glaze over.

One thing I observed about myself is exhaustion. I was completely unaware of the impact the physical activity was having on my body. I hit the bed last night and was out. I wanted to stay up and get some household things done or maybe relax, have a glass of wine and a salt bath. None of which happened. (I did shower after paint ball though - I was a sweaty, dusty and gooey mess - all bruised up - it was awesome. I think we all smelled really badly also. My beltless jeans were humidly sticking to my legs and they sagged heavily. That definitely needed to change as soon as possible. So shower it was.)

After last night, you would think that after such a deep rest I would have been revived by morning, but the truth is I could have slept for half a day. Having to get up and out though turned out to be not so bad - being poolside teaching yoga was quite a pleasure. The weather was perfect and once my body starts moving and I start talking to these humbling and amazing smiling yoga students, I am revived. The 2.6 mile bicycle ride over was not so great - I mean, It wasn’t bad, but my body just did not want to peddle or move at all really. My legs were so heavy. Like sludge. I couldn’t help but think of over coming obstacles.

Which leads me to the epic midnight bike ride through the river, I mean, on the trail....

It would have been so easy to see the first bit of water on the trail and turn back. It was up to the bottoms of my pedals. By the second one I thought, okay I just went through one and it wasn’t that bad. Besides, I didn’t want to turn around and go through it again. Onward we went through slightly deeper water - up to the bottoms of my shoes. The third one was even deeper, now - my crank was underwater and my pedal stroke was up through and back down into it. By the time we got to the last one we were ploughing through water as high as my thighs right above my knees. I didn’t think it would be possible. Everytime we went through my tires felt solid on the smooth black top tarred ground. It felt so solid I didn’t worry. As long as I kept peddling, I would be alright and get through. My thighs told me I was working pretty hard so I down shifted to the lower setting so I could just spin it out. I’m sure this isn’t really good for my bike so hopefully it will get a good cleaning today.

I saw signs glimmering in the small amount of light that was shining and knew we were about to emerge from the trail and I hoped there were no parking lot barriers at the exit. I rolled easily up and out into the parking area and my thighs burned a little more as I became lighter and my cadence increased. I took a few circles and pointed out the beautiful little climb we were about to embark on - the reason we rode down this path in the first place - the Trout Farm climb, a 75 ft 6.4% grade climb. It’s just enough to give a good burn in your legs if you really try to keep your speed up. I’ve seen a few people dismount or just fall over. It’s not a big hill relatively, but I guess it’s what we’ve got for around here and it is doing the job just fine. We rode it three or four times before moving onward back towards home - which meant deciding whether or not we were going to return back through the flooded trail. We hemmed and hawed about it a few times. It is definitely perspective that makes things fun or not. And wading through the flooded trail was fun as much as that little voice in my head told me it was rather unconventional and probably not super good for my bike. But Sam was enthusiastic about it, so we plunged on back in. Right into the deep end first headlamps and tail lights on.

I swear he was trying to test my reflexes or trying to take me out entirely because as I approached, down he went right into the thigh deep river water. Home of the eight legged frogs and three eyed ducks of the DuPage River. Either way, I managed to stay upright and released my shoe to get grounding and ask if he was okay. It was pretty funny actually and since he was cracking up I figured he was alright. I stayed a safe distance so he wouldn’t be able to drag me in had that been any part of a potential evil scheme. Eventually we both figured out how to clip in underwater and carried on. On, up and out. Managed a good 1500+ feet in climbing for the day and managed to have a lot of fun in the process. It was definitely an adventure - which I like a lot. I have a tendency to get bogged down just hangin’ around the burbs so much. Home Sweet Home.


reprinted from https://etherealbeings.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/epic-trail-ride/