The Return of Sharpie John

Today I came up with a brilliant, two part plan.

Part one-Throw the road bike on the bus in the morning and use it to ride home after work.

Part two-When I get home on the road bike, throw the mountain bike in the car and zip over to Theodore Wirth for a couple of laps on dirt.

There was one flaw in this plan, my bicycles' engine in not running very well-too much inactivity over winter. By about half way through the first lap at Wirth I was sucking wind and feeling a little "off". I just could not get in the groove and start flowing down the trail. At the end of the first lap I sat at the trail head trying to catch my breath and get my heart rate back down out of the stratosphere. While wiping sweat from my eyes I debated taking a second lap or heading back to the car. The car sounded pretty good.

Then the decision was made for me.

A guy rolled up to the trail head and I pulled one of those classic inner dialogs "Is that....? No. Wait. Shit, yes it is." Sure enough it was an old friend that I haven't seen in years. Lots of years. Turns out hes a bike nut, has been mountain biking for years and even works for Erik's Bikes. So we sat and caught up, talked bikes and picked up like it had only been a week since we had seen each other. Of course when he asked if I was going to do another lap there was no way I was going to say no.

He took off like someone who has been riding all winter. I knew the pace was going to be fast but I was determined not to get dropped.

Now here's the funny thing. Even though I was more fatigued than when I got there my previous unease on the bike was gone. I was hitting the right lines, staying off the brakes and having way more fun. It is remarkable how riding behind a faster rider can get you to push yourself a little harder. I managed to more or less keep up with him for the entire lap. What I thought was going to turn into a lame ride ended up being a lot of fun.

All fun aside, I was D-U-N done when I got back to the car-just spent. I got back to the house and was standing on my back steps when I realized I was trying to unlock my house with the key fob for my car. I laughed at myself and remembered the time I tried to unclip from my accelerator pedal in almost the same set of circumstances.

I made myself some dinner and cracked a beer. Turned into a pretty good evening.

I don't think I will have any trouble falling asleep.