5 things I learned about riding after not being able to ride a bike for 6 weeks

Dear Readers,

So I'm slowly working back on the bike. I love to train, but I have found this spring that I love to ride my bike even more. That might sound counter intuitive, but in recent years, I may have lost sight of that a bit. My knee, and my fitness are slowly but steadily progressing. I've got a ways to go, but I'm enjoying the ride. Here are a few a things I have learned coming back to the bike in the past few weeks.

5. My butt can't handle the truth.

I love my specialized saddles. After six weeks, I jumped on the bike and the saddle violated me. I had a entire new respect for the term "ass hatchet".  A few weeks later it's starting to get a but, I mean a  bit better...  Got to get my tail end used to that again...

4. Pro move is to ride when it's nice.

It's hard to be sitting on the couch doing nothing, when your friends are all riding. After one of my best Januarys ever, I admit I was totally freakin' out watching my weight go up and my fitness evaporate. My friend Kris pointed out- "February and most of March sucked for riding this year, no one really wanted to be training then- the pro move was to be hurt and then start riding and getting stronger as the weather breaks." I gotta say, as usual Auer is right about this one.

Photo By Benny da Jewlar

3. Lemonade Rides are awesome.

Never take a good ride for granted. Even a bad ride is better than no ride. The first week I was back I could only ride 20 minutes, and slowly worked up to an hour over a few weeks. That first 20 minutes was terrifying and wonderful. The feeling of riding, and moving and... Well you know, you probably wouldn't be reading this "Cuter than James Franco Blog" if you didn't have a sense of or know how wonderful riding bikes is... My buddy Karl, who I didn't get to ride with nearly enough in the past few years has called these rides Lemonade rides. Karl has looked after me a number of times while I was trying for another mile stone ride. This after Shane tried to mail me a lemon in the mail, but it was returned to sender by USPS!  Some of the rides I've done this spring  may not have been the rides I envisioned in January, but they maybe have been sweeter than I had expected. 

Thanks to Buddy, Alan, Blake , Kita and Benny who came out to ride with me last weekend. 
Kita opening up a can of whoop ass on me again!

2. Ride what makes you happy.

You know, gears are faster than single speeds. Suspension forks are faster than rigid forks. There's probably a good argument these days that full suspension is faster than hard-tail. But you know what, I'm not racing this year. I have always loved the feeling of a rigid forks. I appreciate the precision of them, how light they make the bike, and how well they fly out of corners. With no plans race this year, I have set my bike up how I like to ride it best, and that has made all the difference.

1. Riding with my wife is the best. (DUH!)
Perhaps you have noticed an uptick in the number of Monkey and Fatmarc pictures on my second favorite social media platform- Instagram. Diane is my absolute favorite person to ride bikes with.  A lot of times it's just us goofing around on fire-roads, talking about the world and taking it in. A couple of weeks ago we were racing each other around Lums pond, chopping each other in corners and dicing it up. It was awesome. Between Diane and my injuries these opportunities aren't always as frequent as we'd like, so I'm gonna grab them when I can. .Not being able to ride with Diane was a bummer, and frankly has made being able to ride with her, that much more special. I am a lucky man.

thanks for reading.

respect
fatmarc