Back to health

This is what it looks like when you have a baby in January, and both of you work full time, and you scrape for every little opportunity to get out while still, in spite of your best intentions, alienating your wife, and then you get leveled by illness in November.  For someone who used to be able to do a third of this total year’s effort in a month, this is as real as it gets.

I’m back to health now.  I think.  I got out yesterday, the 6th of January, and put an hour and half on the Mamasita with Keith and Steve.  Snow in the woods had packed in really nicely in spots.  Maybe 50% you could completely rail it, 25% sketch-fest, 25% hike-a-bike.  It’s actually beyond expectations given the snowfall we’ve had so far.

I wasn’t sure how this ride would go.  I’ve never been off the bike for 2+ months before, so you kind of wonder what you still have to work with.  More than you think.  You still remember how to ride a bike.  You still have that picture in your head of what you’re supposed to be doing, and what you should look like if you were doing this as a completely fit person, and that mental picture just sort of takes over and makes your body do what it’s supposed to and in the end it looks a lot like you haven’t really missed a beat.  You feel it though.  Your endurance & top end & recovery are full of holes.  And while your prime movers seem to be doing okay, all those little supporting muscles in your hips that you really never engage unless you ride are going through a wakeup call.  And the next day you drill that snooze button for the better part of half hour.

We’ll see what happens this year.  I haven’t really set any goals for myself except for one:  Washington.