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Stuck It

Dec. 4, 2006

Early winter and excellent riding. Not much wind with just a bit of nip in the air. You see, the daily ride, which is usually enjoyable but with more than a few minutes of slog on every day, affords rare moments of pure joy. Riding for fun, especially up in the mountain on trails gives you many challenging moments which lead to feeling good but that daily bicycle commute is best because of the train commute you are avoiding rather than any of it's own positive merits. You can't choose your path so much because your house and place of work are fixed.

Today I did two things which made me happy. Moments when you do something that gets the adrenaline going and makes you feel good. On the way to school in the morning, I managed to make the little trail that goes up from the Yodogawa to the cool arched bridge. It requires riding over some erosion protection tiles and then up a diagonal trail up to the top of the bridge. I'm probably about 50/50 when I try the tiles and the trail. It's not *that* hard, but I usually play it conservatively because I don't like falling. The challenge is that it's a bit of a steep angle and there are few rocks and hangups so that the slow climb can quickly be stopped if my speed isn't enough. Furthermore because of the steepness and crumbly nature of the trail, it is easily to lose traction on the back tire and spinout just long enough to stop going up.

However today, I just plain stuck it and it felt natural and almost easy. One brief moment of "yes!" A moment where it makes you glad to be riding the levee rather than negotiating the crowds or trying to remember which part of your briefcase or which pocket you stuck your trian pass into. After I get some consistency with making this breif climb, I'll try doing it clicked-in.

On the other side of the bridge there is a motor-scooter barrier that is barely ridable. You have to set the pedals parallel to the ground to get them to clear below the spoke popper. After your pedals are set you have to lift your feet off the pedals and ride STRAIGHT through or rest your feet briefly on the top as you pass through. If you mess up you catch your front forks on the barrier or worse, it jams into your wheel and you lose a few or more spokes. Today I got through it more smoothly than ever (even though it was only about the third time I actually tried) and it felt natural.

How can I account for these small successes? First, starting last week, I'm riding more and feeling good, secondly I've quit smoking now for almost four months. Feeling good but the cold is coming. Dress for the weather and all is well!