My Summer Activities in Review: Biking

Ok so I've come to the realization this summer that i love Kayaking and Bike Riding. I set out to write this as one status but now its 2; this is for the Biking.The human body is an amazing thing; it can perform in amzing ways you never thought possible. Bike Riding always seemed like a sissy sport to me and i saw my dad for years watch the Tour de France and thought: Sure it's verrrrrry physical and the riders are true athletes but i don't think i could ever get into it. the outfits look funny. How wrong i was; its great! Take for example today; well yesterday (i'm writing this at 1:18 in the morning) I went on a TOUGH 20 mile bike ride; and i've been doing various types of road trails. Mind you they are like Tour de France bikes; Road bicycles if you would. Most of the times i'll just do laps in two parks with 2.5 mile circuits a piece and quite frankly it can get boring if you don't have someone to talk to. In fact: those are the kind of trails where you can really talk! You get used to the same old turns and your body just rides and its like walking and chewing gum at the same time except your riding and having an in depth conversation not even thinking about the trail; in fact you can do an easy 20 miles and feel great. However today that was not the case! The path we took we repeated only about 2 miles worth of road out of the 20.65 miles we went and barely talked; only for position switches and riding advice. This is not something you would think would get you close to your 62 year old dad and 18 year old brother; yet: that's exactly what happened! Each of us had something go wrong: my dad hit a string of potholes and got a flat; my brother hit a deeeeeeep pothole on our way back (i hit it a split second afterwards) and his front light looked like it exploded for some odd reason (probly the force). It looked like it spontaneously decided to throw all its parts in every direction! This was in the pitch black. Now mind you we set out at 6:20 and it took an hour and a half RIDE TIME. With stops because of problems and such it probly added about a half hour to 45 mins. Now on to me; mind you mine and Francois's (my brother) happened when it was PITCH BLACK when my dads happened at dusk. I had no front light or taillight and had to be in the middle the entire time when it was getting dark. I was following my dad (after both of there mishaps) towards the end of our ride and we went up a hill over train tracks. My dad goes over the hill and so does his light! So i can't see a thing and my wheel goes slightly off the side and sends me carreening INTO traffic! I didn't end up in the opposing lane but my water bottles did. The Driver wouldve braked in time anyway; he was good at driving whoever he was. This spill (probably combined with Francois's deep pothole) resulted in a bent back rim and a flat front tire; something i didnt realize until i got home and looked at it. I thought the severely bent rim was the cause of me being able to feel every nook and cranny of the road, not a flat. I'm positive the flat happened when i careened of the side over the hill; the bent rim might've been a combined effort. After my spill it was only about a mile till home through a construction zone in which i felt every...siinggle... bump! That was probably the toughest part; not the massively steep hills or the winding curves, the unrealized flat was. OK! Enough of this rant. I'll finish out with saying we are like machines that need routine maintenance and will corrode, rust, seize up, and dry rot if we don't "drive" ourselves to do physically active things and just ride.