Smiles

Oh man! I got a couple of the best rides in this weekend!!! I am so happy about that. Makes me wish I was young and free again and could do it day after day, after day. But that got me into trouble too. Over -trained and burned out comes to mind! I am sometimes so dumb-founded as to what my body is capable of. It has been so long since I've ridden consistently. But yet, my body still finds within it the ability to perform when called on. That is even at the moment being 10ish pounds over race weight and nursing a hamstring injury and being out of commission for a time from my ice fall.I rode for 6 hours yesterday in the cold and rain to Zions from my parent's home in Bloomington. That is over 110 miles. I haven't ridden that far in quite some time. The time is a little slower than I was used to doing when I would ride centuries with my friend Dave Wood and Co., but wow! I finished feeling as though I could have ridden at least another hour or so. I didn't have anyone to ride with, so I just started riding and ended up riding with a few nice guys from Ogden One race team. They were nice.Today was just as good. I rode my mountain bike from my parent's over to Green Valley and rode the race course plus parts of some other trails over there (I get lost on that course every time I ride it by myself). I did have one pretty good crash in the second wash (instant humiliation), but other than that I was really strong and pushed hard the whole way. Then was time for some real fun. I rode up to the GV loop (don't think that's its real name, but that is what I grew up calling it) and rode like a kid on a bike--oh so happy and in the moment, all the way to Bloomington through my beautiful desert I called home for so long. It was amazing. I didn't see a soul the entire time (almost 3 hours) I was out. It was overcast, but still at least 50 degrees, but so perfect. I do think the weather scared a lot of people away. Lucky me. Yeah, I finally felt like I was home. I wished I could just keep riding forever.I got a few pictures today. Yesterday I forgot my camera. So here you go.Views from upper parts of trails  Looking back on some sections of GV loop I just rode. Been riding it since I was a kid. I am usually scared of this kind of stuff!  Sadly, this literally used to by my back yard. Now it is full of urban sprawl and track houses.Heart breaking!