Short Moment, But I'll Take It

I just got back from a night snow bike ride up Big Springs. It's been snowing the past couple days and the avalanche danger is high. South Fork canyon doesn't get as much snow and there aren't any slide zones to worry about. Its a shorter trail, which was also fitting for me tonight. I haven't been feeling too well. I go through a cycle of fatigue, normal, insomnia. It's been happening for several years now. Long enough that I have confidence in the order of the cycle, it's the length and severity of each phase that is always unknown. Right now I've been in the fatigue phase for about two weeks. By far my least favorite.

Although I dislike my fatigue phase, I also find it the most interesting. Definitely the most contradictory. It goes without saying that I pretty much always feel tired during this phase. No matter how much I sleep I can always sleep more. But I've found that sleeping more than 8 hours makes me feel worse, fewer than 7 hours and I'm a total zombie, 7-8 hours works pretty well for me. Getting up before the 8 hour mark can be REALLY hard though. My body is screaming for more sleep and part of me wants nothing more than to oblige, but experience tells me to ignore it and get up. Also during this phase I don't feel like doing anything active, but if I don't do some form of exercise the pain and stiffness gets worse. If I exercise even just a little bit I know it will keep the pain and stiffness a bit more in check. So tonight although I'm feeling tired and not motivated to exercise I loaded up Babe and drove up the canyon.

It was a beautiful night tonight, fresh snow and enough breaks in the clouds for some nice star gazing. The road from the main turn off to the trailhead was in pretty poor shape, unplowed snow up to about 10 inches deep in some places. I considered just parking at the turn off and riding up the road, but drove up to the trailhead anyhow. It was pretty nice snow bike conditions. About a foot of new snow, but just enough people had been through to create a rideable trail. Packed enough to be able to ride, but still soft enough to enjoy the feel of floating on snow. A snow bike does pretty well at floating and making its way through snow, but it does have limits and 12 inches of new snow is above that limit.

It was a slow ride with lots of stops. When I'm not feeling well that's just the way it goes. But, that's also one of the things I love most about mountain biking. You don't have to go fast or far to have a good time and stopping to enjoy the scenery can be one of the best parts of the trip. The start of any bike ride is usually not too fun for me, I feel tired, weak, lacking air. I push through because I know that within 15 minutes or so my body will warm up and the endorphins and adrenaline will start kicking in and everything in my body will feel good. I didn't have the energy to stay out for very long and I know that pushing myself too hard will have negative consequences. But for half an hour I felt well and everything in life was good. It was a short moment, but I'll take it.