Three Kinds

My last ride was a winter ride on the spur of the moment. I managed to wrangle a playdate for my four-year-old son. He bounded into the home of a friend and I bounded out to my road bike dangling from the back of my car. I wore my riding clothes to the drop off, set my internal timer for one hour and headed off. It was a fairly warm day, no snow or ice. I wore my wind breaker and I was glad I had because the wind was brutal. I road with it at my back for the first half of the ride, knowing full well that kind of leisure had a price. As I road a fairly familiar route I let my mind wander. I started to think about obstacles.

When you're riding on the road there are three fundamental categories of obstacles. 1) Things you know to avoid (e.g. car doors, dead animals, road grates that run parallel to the road) 2. Things that with some experience and skill you can go over (e.g. curbs, large branches or debris) and 3. things that make you say, "oh shit this is going to hurt". The final category can be surprising and can overlap with the first two and (as a much more experienced rider put it, "will change as you keep riding."

There isn't any way to ride roads or trails without obstacles. Hell, part of trail riding and mountain biking is bigger and more technical obstacles. In order to enjoy all the benefits of riding you have to be willing to get hurt. One of the nice parts about riding in a group is that a rider in front of you will flap a hand at an obstacle to avoid. The warning reminds me of flocking birds. My memories of group rides are filled with the hum of wheels and flutter of hands.

As I road that day I thought of all the things in life I avoid because I don't apply the biking obstacle logic to the rest of my life. The black top road stretched out ahead of me. I pushed into the wind.