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.