Month: January 2014

Homesick

On Jan 5, Singletracks posted this video on their Twitter feed:

… and I got homesick.

You see, Dakota Ridge was my backyard and while I didn’t mountain bike when I lived in Colorado, I know that area well.

And for a few hours, my heart ached to be back in Colorado riding my bike.

Ached I tell you.

Then I fed the fire by looking up the Strava segments for Lookout Mountain and realizing that getting to the top of that mountain was not just achievable for everyone else in the world, but it would be achievable for me. Looked at Google Maps to see the trails crisscrossing Green Mountain.

Friends, I’m telling you. Physically ached.

Last night as I was waiting to pick up my oldest child from an evening school activity, my youngest child and I were talking about how sometimes we miss Colorado. She misses her friends and is sad that one particular friend hasn’t written back in almost a year. One of her new friends reminds her of her best friend in Colorado. We talked about how people move on, make new friends, stop writing letters and leave the old friends in the past. I shared with her about when I moved from Massachusetts to Colorado – I was about her age and was sad when the letters started to trickle off. But I focused on my new friends and eventually, I was able to move on too.

And as we were talking I realized many of my friends are leaving Colorado too now – for Portland, Seattle, Nashville. We’re all scattering across the country. So even if we did go back to Colorado, it wouldn’t be the same.

(well, the mountains would be. And the trails. And the friends I have who are staying.)

The answer isn’t to keep looking back at the past but to look forward and enjoy the times that we have with our new friends … and savor the times with our old friends whenever we can get together again.

See you on the road.

Pro Tip #1

Remember when I said my winter cycling shoes were so heavy? So heavy that I could feel my upstroke and my quads were terribly unhappy very early in the bike ride?

Maybe not but I do.

Anyway several rides ago I had an post-ride-shower epiphany. It’s the cleats.

I had installed my SPD cleats in my usual position – which would be fine … if the shoes weren’t two sizes larger than my usual cycling shoes. Checked where the widest part of my foot was hitting inside the shoe and moved the cleat back significantly.

Sure enough, my winter shoes are no longer a terrible burden and when coupled with toe warmers, I’m a much happier cyclist out on the road and in the woods. Praise Science!

 

Pro Tip #1: if it doesn’t feel quite right, tweak it until it does.

 

See you on the road or in the woods!

 

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