On the Trail

I haven't seriously ridden my bike since I in high school, but I acquired a nice used mountain bike earlier this year and after fixing it up, I decided that I was going to start putting it to good use.

I was inspired after really enjoying a mountain biking trek on an island off St. Thomas on my recent vacation. With this view, who wouldn't be inspired to ride more?




I figure that riding once or twice a week will make a nice augmentation for my daily running regime.

The best part of riding a bike now is that I'm missing 55 pounds, and I seem to have incredible amounts of energy, so I have to look for good ways to burn it off and earn my banana smoothies.

I heard about an abandoned rail corridor that snakes through the woods in my town and decided to go for a ride this morning. The area is actually quite beautiful, and the path, even though it's dirt and occasionally overgrown or flooded, runs by a lake and other areas that made it a worthwhile trip.

After awhile the path gets too overgrown so I got off and kept to some side streets, ending up in the downtown area of the next town over about eight miles away.

By that time my butt was pretty sore (my buns haven't been in the saddle for so long that I suppose I shouldn't be surprised ) and my and my thighs were getting tired.

I laid down in a small park, ate some celery and drank some water (a combo that works far better than any sports drink you'll come across for restoring electrolyte balance) and just rested until I felt up for the return home.

I can't believe how the the little breather refreshed me, and while by butt was still sore on the bumps, I had more than enough energy to make it the eight miles back.

And when you have a huge watermelon awaiting your triumphant return, there's a bit of a hurry to get back.

I'd be curious to know how a SAD diet beginning biker would have felt on the trip back, and I'm thinking that they wouldn't have held up as well.

Anyway, here's to a really sore butt in the morning.