It's strange - or maybe not. While I've been having a great time on my bike, I'm getting less and less enjoyment from Bike Forums and MTBR. Just the repetition is wearing on me, I think. Carefully crafted 1000 word posts from newbies who have read too much and ridden too little asking whether they need this $300 bike or that $350 bike, neither of which they can ride before buying. I don't want to turn into Jim From Boston just reposting what I already did in order to stay in the community. On the MTB side I've watched a few fads rise and die. Some to my personal detriment, like the contraction of 27.5's market share followed by similar for 27.5+... I'm 5ft8, the tire size works great for me. Watching one company one year call their new product plush and forgiving and then 2-3 years later call that same product vague and squirmy in order to sell another new one just makes me cynical.
My improving heart health since my surgery comes and goes - and it seems like when it's bad, it's bad for a few weeks, and then it's good for a few weeks longer each time. But I still feel an obvious need for my medicine, don't expect that to ever end. Still, I'm able to ride a lot harder most of the time. I can ride harder and further, and stand on the pedals and power up a rise rather than sitting down and winching along. I've been extending my rides home a different way. While the trails I'm exploring now are objectively worse than what I was doing, they run closer to home, and if I had a problem I'd be "stranded" pretty close to light rail and home. And they're new to me, at least on a bicycle. I used to walk my dog on them all the time, 12-7 years ago. They're worse for MTB because they're made of a lot of decomposed granite with potato to baby head river rocks poking through - so much not dirt, except where it's eroded away. And there's not as much up and down.
On yesterday's ride I was headed for the blackberry patch again when I ran into a former coworker, out for a stroller stroll with his little kids (2.5 and <1 yo). He's still in the industry, just swapped employers, so we chatted about rumors mostly. That took long enough that I flipped over from there and headed home. Last night was the first Rodeocross race of the year. I've been thinking I'd like to try it but there's just no way to work it out right now with my and wife's schedule.
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Genesis 49:16-17