The return to life

Yet another great weekend has come and gone. It was the first time back on the the mountain bike in a week, actually it was the first time on any bike in a week, it seems that the rest did the body right. Saturday was spent up north at Bark Lake for the Race the Rockstar adventure race. No I'm not changing sports, again though you will have to check the team site to get Shannon's rundown on the race which she did amazing just missing the podium. For me, I played and helped again.

Starting out with the ride to the start, they gave me the option to sit in the truck but that would have been the weak and lame thing to do, it was only 20-30 km away. This worked out perfect, basically pinned it on the road, yes the mountain bike on the road at just shy of race pace is always enjoyable but it felt awesome hammering the hills, feeling the heart rate rise, feeling almost normal. I was smiling the whole time. I was all happy and giddy as I rolled to the start line to start the second part of my day playing sweep for the bike course. Seems this adventure race thing is pretty popular, reminded me of a start of an 8 hour. The fun began and so did my bike repair skills, over the next two hours I fixed a snapped chain, 2 tires and a messed up pedal that kept falling off the crank arm. The last repair was the highlight by the end of the day. The all female team was frustrated when the bike was messed up and thought their day was done 9km in to the race, an hour in of the 8 hours. Some creative tool making got them up and going and by the end of the day they ended up being 2nd in their division. Congrats ladies, glad to have helped.

After just under 4 hours on the bike I was feeling fantastic, the craving to ride was back in full force, I think the relaxing on the waterfront of the Bark Lake camp for a couple hours helped, that lead to Sunday. The return to the road, the return to Chuck and what a return it was. Pace was high, legs felt even better than the previous day, it was an Olympic feeling day as I blasted around the Big Chute loop on some fresh pavement. Again I was smiling the whole time, no needed distractions like music just the sound of the wind and tires on the road. It was great. This has me happy and ready to ride again, train again and race again. I'm looking now at what to do, Marathon Championships are looking good now. Very good.