Craig, Keith, and "a little singletrack"

The first Canadian soil group ride I've done in a long long time was with Keith and Craig today, ahh, good times. Craig dropped by at about 10am, and I kid you not, I was thinking as I pulled my bike out of the garage that it was foolish to go out without lights... but deep inside I thought I'd fatigue early enough to come home before sunset. You'd think I'd have learned by now.

We fuelled up with coffee at Cadence, then started southward though a web of single track only these kind of groups can weave together after years of having scouted every bit of single track they can get their skinny 'cross tires on. Things were going well, bike felt solid and I wasn't tiring out as quick as I thought I might.

Fish Creek park took a couple hours of our time, with power climb after power climb through the twisty trails. I made mental note that if we every do a "bike guys" ski day, there will be no easy runs in celebration of what Craig and Keith are drawn to on 'cross bikes. I struggled a bit as time wore on, surprisingly though mostly from the rest of my body being an out of shape sack of jello than my legs and lungs. My hands got sore and tired, as did my core from all the body english (and that one hole in the middle of the "trail" that ate my front wheel and sent me to the dry grass with the intensity of a car crash... as Pat would say, I "scorpioned"). I quote "trail" as we did a fair bit of overland bushwhacking today.

When we finally gained a vantage point to look north, downtown Calgary was a mere spec on the horizon. No problem... especially since I live 12k on the other side of that at Calgary's higher ground.

Slinking off the back, I just enjoyed the temps, the smoother paths when we were on them, and the joy of pedalling around. We stopped at the Hose 'n Hound in Inglewood for dinner, I didn't look past the baked enchilada on the menu. Good times. Even got my intermittent update on blackberry from Travel-addicted-Tori who's currently indulging in Saigon. I bet she didn't have on as many breathable microfibres as us...

I've been stretching for a few hours, over the last few months my lower back has just become one chunk in stasis without mobility, I'm guessing a derivative of some muscle tightening issues I was having mid summer, followed by a regime of endurance desk sitting, switching to inactivity and commuting by vehicle, and a highly increased frequency of sleeping in a poorly postured position on airplanes. Great regimen. Gotta work that in the right direction for a while before I become too decrepit.

But back and hands aside, I have to admit I didn't spontaneously combust at the one hour mark. I'm not sure what, other than pure excitement, fuelled me in half respectable fashion for 5 hours considering that's more than the sum total of exercise I've done in the last couple of months combined. I bet I'll be sore for three days. Apparently severe taper by inactivity and hyper-caloric business dinners with Colombian poured "mostly gin and a little tonic's" somehow haven't killed me yet, but I won't count on that forever. And if that ugly regime hasn't done it, getting home after dark with no lights on my bike sure will. We stuck to the sidewalks, but I need to get lights on a few of my machines when I can fit in some garage time.