It Wasn’t Easy Through MonuRock

We had a late start and we really lucked out. As most Coloradoans know and expect, more than likely, there will be an afternoon thunderstorm come spring and summer. I watched the ominous clouds surround us our entire bike ride, like we were the circus attraction and the clouds were our spectators; waiting to throw popcorn (or rain) at us. We kept the spectators at bay and avoided the rain the entire time.

Maybe Zeus was impressed. We found out that we gained more elevation on this bike ride than Deer Creek and Lookout Mountain. One of the perks of climbing so high was reaching 40mph on the ol’ Giant. That, unfortunately, didn’t last long.

I’m going to have buns of steel at the end of summer.

While pedaling up a windy hill, a few things happened:

1. A cyclist was riding down the hill, right in the middle of the road and as I pedaled up, a truck was passing me, moving over to the left lane, and damn near took out the cyclist. I think he yelled, “holy shit.” Holy shit is right, dude.

a. Definitely felt like I was going to be road kill on this ride – more so than Deer Creek’s ride. This highway had a speed limit of 60mph. It only takes one person dicking around in their car and accidentally (or on purpose) to knock us off our bikes. I’m way too young to die. That’s what I kept thinking at least.

2. This is part of the Elephant Rock course. I’m pedaling at the lowest gear. I can’t see the freaking end and “Jump on My Shoulders” starts playing. Perfect timing AWOLNATION. I reach the top. This is not supposed to be easy. That’s why it feels so fucking good.

a. These two lines feel like the theme of my life (most people’s). I have never had anything come easy for me. So many times I’m wishing something would give and it never does. When, after all the hard work (and stress and zits and lack of sleep), I finally  reach a goal, well, I always think I could have done better. That’s beside the point. I digress… it does feel good. Reaching the top of that hill was painful, but I felt good afterward. And after the tens of hundreds of hills that followed, I still felt good. I mean, sure, my legs were shaking and I was cursing Jared for taking us on the journey, but mylegs will only become stronger and I will continued to do things that I don’t want to do and I will get better.

Jared took us the wrong way for a couple of miles, which made me grateful for iPhones. While Map My Ride mapped our journey, it doesn’t do GPS at the same time, so you really don’t know if you’re still on the course or not. Thankfully, the phone’s GPS helped us out and we got to go up all the downhill I was (initially) happy about. Stronger legs, amiright? Nothing’s easy..

While those hills sucked, we finally hit a straight, leveled road, oh, and that was sweet, sweet bliss. I was able to finally enjoy the scenery. If we weren’t biking so fast, I could have photographed the beautiful landscape. The storm clouds hung behind the foothills, the sun peaked through, and lit up the green field. It almost felt like I was back in Ireland, except there were horses and not sheep.

This joyride didn’t last too long, for we started climbing hills again. I just had to keep telling myself “keep going.” How can I force myself to push up hills, but when it comes to daily activities, I’m just like, “fuck it.” I need to bring my cyclist mentality to my work-life.