What gives a grown man a huge smile

Not that, that does work but were trying to keep it clean here. Today's ride is what did it. I had my plan and I was going to stick with it. The body was still feeling a little rough but not that type of stay of the bike type issue. A quick tire change and wheel swap and I was out on the Anthem. Yes, in that order and that means I had to do something I really don't like doing. Riding a mountain bike on the road sucks but it was all for the greater cause.

Headed south on what was the straightest possible line to my final destination. Surprisingly enough I didn't mind the annoying sound of knobby tires on hard asphalt tonight. The fact that I was doing 25-26 km/h instead of over 30. I think it was because of the amazing weather. The sun broke about 20 minutes into my ride and I swear it felt almost summer. An hour of road which I would normally say is way to long to do what I was doing, I pulled into the parking lot, to heaven???

I had a good feeling about things as I turned both lockout's back to open while spinning towards the railroad tracks. a couple hundred feet further and I made a left. Singletrack!!!! I don't think I got the bike fully in the trail and I already started to smile. Things were dry and you could see the indents in the leaves that I was not the only one with the craving to be out here. I didn't really know where I was riding to, I kept waiting to run into some big pile of snow or complete mud section that was still unrideable, but I didn't.

I kept climbing up towards the top of the valley, the long way which included some short downhill sections. The trails stayed consistent all the way. I did see the odd snow section, it was about the size of a snowball and seemed to be more like a mirage that I could never seem to get close enough to. It felt like an early fall day, not March 31st. I made my way to a section that I know would be wet, like it always is. It looked exactly like it does in June. Turned around and continued on up the valley.

The first 40 minutes I kept it pretty sane just getting the bike feel back again, did I mention how much I love my Anthem?? Or how much I love to be on the trails?? Had I known things were going to be this good I would have done my whole 3 hour ride here. As I made my way back to the parking lot I picked up the pace a hair, not for training but just because. I got to the point that I subconsciously knew my heart rate monitor was going to start beeping at me since I was breaking my endurance pace if I kept it up. I ran out of trail just in time.

The hour ride back home on the roads wasn't as bad yet again as i still had this perma grin. Legs were feeling really good despite the hip/ass problems. It was just a great feeling of turning amongst the trees. The weekend is coming, there may be another ride that includes lots of trails put into the training mix.