A spontaneous bike ride is a nice thing. Get a wild hair, grab your bike, head out the door. It’s amazing how few of my rides are spontaneous. Is that because being an adult is incompatible with spontaneity? Yes. Probably yes.
And so, most of my best ever rides have been part of regularly scheduled programming or dates made in advance with friends. I’m sure a lot of you have these on your calendar, likely a Saturday meet up or even a planned solo excursion. Sunday is usually also ripe with opportunity.
One of my favorite ever rides was a Wednesday night afterwork throwdown with the crew at Seven Cycles. We’d leave the factory around 6, soft pedal across town to the Minuteman Bike Path, then take that out into the western burbs where pavement gave way to dirt and gravel and the speed ratcheted up to lung-busting, before it all settled down and came back together on the way back into Lexington and the Upper Crust pizzeria.
For a time, I did a regular Saturday morning road thing with a crew of dads. We left around 5:30 and aimed to be back by 9. In retrospect, I’m not sure how we made that happen, everyone already exhausted from work and parenting, but such was the pull of the bike and its freedom at that time.
Friday is the day for me now, the one day I know I’ll be riding, a trail ride, usually at the Land-Locked Forest, with my friend Meghna. It is NOT a throwdown, although sometimes we throw down, if you know what I mean. Other times we pick an obstacle or tricky line and session it. We talk a lot.
I hope and suspect you have some of this in your life too.
This week’s TCI Friday wonders which day is your day and what happens. Do you have a group thing? Do you have some solo time set aside? And how is your appointment riding different now than it used to be?
The good news, Robot, is that when the kids head off to college and you become empty-nesters, the time available to ride increases exponentially. And then comes retirement, and time to ride expands again.
I have been retired since the end of 2017. Now, my problem is making excuses NOT to ride. Psychologically, I don’t know what’s worse, trying to find time to ride (the past), or not riding when I should be riding (the present). As I’ve written about here, group rides for me are no longer feasible. My friends want a workout, and they won’t get one riding with me. But I still like to meet them for a beer on summer Friday afternoons after they’ve all kicked each others’ asses.
I typically ride (mtb) four or more times a week. I have Friday through Sunday off, so I will generally get in a couple of rides in over each weekend and then a couple or more during the week as I generally finish up around 4 PM. As for riding with others the pals I ride with and I keep it pretty loose and generally it is spur of the moment when we hit it. This spontaneity also extends to us planning riding that involves regional travel, eg NC, N GA, FL, E TN or AL. During team GCA (Georgia Cycling Association/Roswell Nitro) season (GCA is Georgia’s answer to NICA) I am a Level 2-3 coach 1-2x per week in addition to the above..
This winter is killing me here in Albany, NY. It had the audacity to be wintry! I need to make an appointment. But, likely, my next ride will be a spontaneous affair on my own just because I miss two wheels.