Friday, November 12, 2010

Bonktown: Population 1

Yesterday I had the day off from work thanks to our nation's honoring of all of our military veteran's [thank you Dad!] Since we're having such beautiful weather lately, I decided to head out for a mountain bike ride. Unfortunately none of my friends who also had the day off have any interest in riding, so it was a solo ride for me. I headed over to Wakefield park to ride the singletrack trails they have. I hadn't ridden at Wakefield in probably more than 5 years, which is sad because I used to ride on almost a daily basis. Anyway, since I wasn't familiar with the trail system anymore I just set out to exploring and riding whatever I could find. 

It was only about 20 minutes into my ride that I realized I'm horribly out of riding shape. I grabbed a swig of water, and a couple bites of a power bar and continued on. Another 15 minutes later after a short climb to the top of the power lines area, I needed to stop again. I hopped off the bike to catch my breath and grab some more water, then I got [only slightly] light-headed. "Really?" I thought to myself, you're gonna bonk already? [Bonking is the slang term for hitting your wall, you're out of energy, feel like you're going to faint, etc.]  I sat down for a few minutes, ate the rest of the power bar, grabbed some water and rested. The bonk feeling subsided in a few minutes, and I surveyed the trails below and continued on. I rode for another 20 minutes or so before making my way back to the parking lot.


During my "rest stop"


All in all, it was a great ride, and the weather was perfect to be outside. I can't wait to start hitting the trails again on a regular basis and get my ass back into normal riding shape. My goal is to ride twice a week and swim twice a week as much as I can throughout the winter. Come spring time I may start entering some of the local mountain bike race series. 

**Side note and totally unrelated, when I got back to the parking lot after my ride, I saw a black Challenger R/T Classic sitting in the parking lot, only the stripes on the car were red instead of black. The guy who owns it showed up just after I was done, so I rode over and we talked for a few minutes about our cars. Funny how common interests can bring people together sometimes!

2 comments:

Katie said...

When I saw the title of this post I definitely thought you went to an actual place called Bonktown

Patty said...

Now I'm educated and know what bonking is! Good for you - did you ride over "your" bridge?!!