Go DJ...

Ugh!.. Finally got another ride in, and it was needed. This time, I broke out the dirt jumper and headed out to Valmont. I snuck out of Loveland at around 8am, which put me in the parking lot at 9, and after some pre-season maintenance (which I obviously do at the trailhead, instead of my garage), I was on the hill at the DJ lines. It was a beautiful morning, only a couple other guys there and hardly any wind. What you’d expect for a weekday morning, at least before school lets out for the summer. After my usual psyching myself up (or out), I dropped in on the medium line. Yes, the medium line. Hey, I hadn’t been there since last summer, and I wasn’t any good then… Anyway, after a couple runs on the medium, I started working out all the winter kinks from my bike (and my fat ass), but I still wasn’t feeling too comfortable. At one point, I even debated selling my Kona so I could focus more on my trail riding, which I also don’t take very seriously. I just needed to relax and get into a groove. By the end of the morning, I was back on the large jumps, and on a few runs down the large slopestyle line, and I started to remember why I needed that Kona. Once again, I was just happy to get to ride, and I think I made the most out of what I went there to do. I wanted to knock the dust off, and try out my helmet cam, which doesn’t go on my DJ helmet with any of my current mounts, but mainly to get out and ride. Everyone should be doing the same.

No time like the present...

I suppose I should start actually writing something on this blog that I set up... like forever ago, and what better time than now, right? I got my first ride of the 2012 season in the other day, and I am out of shape! It was kind of a last minute decision to go, and I really just wanted to start to wear in my new cassette and chain, so I just ran down the street to Devil's Backbone to squeeze in a quick ride while my wife and sister watched the leftover Redbox movies from the night before. If you've never been to the backbone, or ridden much of anything in Colorado, let me tell you it's out and back (for me anyway) which means you start up and come back down. I think I made it about two and a half miles before I realized my heart wasn't in it... my chest, that is. It seemed like forever since I was on a bike in the dirt, and my late-season obsession with the Valmont bike park in Boulder meant that my most recent riding had been a lot of jumping and pumping. This does not bode well for an out of shape fat guy trying to pound the pedals up the ridge. I must say, I missed that minutes-to-cardiac feeling though. Just being back on the bike for a moment is all it takes to remind you of what it means. I had total game face on the way up, mostly because of the unnatural amount of effort I was exerting. But, by the time I turned around and started screaming back towards the parking lot, I could feel the muscles that seemed the most underworked in the winter, the ones that form my smile, being exercised.