What a horrible start to a Monday…

It’s a rare day I need a ride as bad as I did last night. It was worse than a typical Monday by an order of magnitude. I was even sick to my stomach for a bit… all work related, and I don’t know if I was ever that fired up over work. The day did get better as it wore on, however, as I calmed down I formulated a plan to manipulate the situation to our favor and got to work.  I could put a positive spin on the “manipulation” bit, but it’s an honest program and I’m gonna manipulate the $#!+ out of this one…

We’ve got a couple of nice days (by this year’s standards, they’re really only average) strung together, so we talked about a night ride during Sunday’s ride and Jonathan texted to ask if something was getting put together… I sent out the text Sunday afternoon.  When Jonathan pulled into my driveway and I knew we’d have a decent group, I was freakin’ stoked.

We rolled out at 5:30, deciding to stay on the pavement because the dirt roads were a little dicey. Then, just three miles in, and in the pitch dark, we decided to give the dirt a try. Nobody wanted to mess with traffic and a dirty bike isn’t all that big a deal.  We decided on a new route we’d never tried before, too.

The ride was a little mucky, but it was fun. The pace wasn’t outrageous, but it was enough for a workout without getting too silly.  We cruised the dirt roads for a while, then did part of our “Jimmer Loop”  backwards, then headed back on the dirt roads before spending the last few miles on pavement again.

I came up with a name for the route over the course of the ride, but it really came together in the last few miles.  Chuck calls our normal summer route “The Jimmer Loop”, so I came up with “The Dirty Chucker”… and for Strava, I added “With Reverend Lotsa Watts and the Funky Bunch”.  I chuckled for more than a few minutes over that.

We pulled into the driveway with just shy of a 16-mph average – decent for a night ride, excellent for a night/dirt ride.  After a rough start to the day, the 21 miles was more than enough to get me back to right and put a smile on my face.  I slept like a baby last night.

When life hands you lemons, ride.  It’s better for your figure than lemonade.