Friday, October 2, 2009

Feel the burn

Aaggh! My lungs and throat are on fire!

I should explain. I came down with a bug on Tuesday and haven't really done anything since except ride to and from work (in the rain on Wednesday). I am finally feeling a bit better today so I agreed to 1) meet up with Mike for breakfast with our wives and 2) go riding during lunch.

Breakfast was great although I biked over there in front of Sarah, who was in the car. I worked hard to get there so I was coughing all through breakfast while my nose ran like a faucet. I'm sure it was pleasant for everyone.

Later I met up with Mike during lunch, and after his act of public indecency, we found Janet and rode over to Two Moon Park. I had told Mike about it before and since it is close, we decided we could try it during a lunch break. We booked it over to the park on 4th Ave. with the traffic and I could feel the fire in my lungs but it felt so good to be off the couch that I kept going anyway. We scrambled down the switchbacks into the park and took off through the trails. The trails go on forever and only once did I see something I recognized from my previous trip. At one point I had to slam on my breaks and yell "Duck!" back to Mike and Janet as I hugged the frame of my bike to clear a huge fallen tree in the path. I scraped it with my back, almost missed it.

I was leading since I'd been there before and Mike caught me skidding around corners instead of slowing down and was shocked that I could do that (simple maneuver). So on the gravel road I told him how to do it and then demonstrated a skid spraying gravel all over. Only problem, I had nowhere to turn so when I released the brake and tried to straighten out, I almost went over the other direction. I made it look smooth and no one knew the better.

Anyway, I had a really great time but now my lungs are burning. Hopefully I'll be ready for Monday's ride.

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