Body Over Mind

The first ride of the season is always the most challenging. Today was no exception. Today was the first day I would ride on my new seat given to me by my husband for my birthday. This was a funny present as it is a Terry seat with a butterfly embroidered on the back. When we first looked at mountain bikes for me back in 2006, I had no idea what I was getting into. All the accessories, the materials of the forks and frames. When J saw a Canondale in our local store, his eyes lit up. It's so cool. This is the bike you want. I looked at it, seeing a bike, a foreign object with shocks and a weird one sided fork. Strange looking thing. But it had this cool embroidered butterfly on the seat. That's when I knew this was my bike. I felt like that little bit of girliness put my mind at ease. I was scared, but how scared could I be with a beautiful butterfly on my seat? See what I mean? Anyway, J orders me a bike and it arrives with an OEM bike seat. My first words when asked how I liked my new bike were "where's the butterfly?"

As previously posted, I got over my fears, I ride and I'm usually not scared to death. Last summer Voodoo had a big sale on cross bikes and J bought me a beautiful electric blue Wazoo. It's small and quick and makes me feel like I'm in charge. It's the bomb on our paved path or flat dirt roads. But its seat was nothing special, so for my birthday J bought me a Terry seat with an embroidered butterfly. This morning he put it on and we got dressed for a ride this afternoon.

I'm dressed, ready to leave and look outside. It's snowing. Sideways. Nope. I'm not going I tell J. He looks out and laughs. Wow. Blizzard. He agrees to wait and see if things improve. They do. I rise reluctantly out of my cozy chair and head outside. The ride starts off pretty well. When we reach Florence 7.5 miles later, I'm whiny. My back hurts, my ELBOWS hurt, my ass hurts (new seat needs broken in). J wants to continue down by the river. I want to head home. I look towards the mountains and see dark storm cloud pouring over towards us. I feel the snow coming, the wind. I tell J to head on his way and catch up with me on the way home. He hesitates, but complies.

I head home, into the wind, the temperature drops, the snow begins to fall and my head tells me I can't do it. How will I make it home? The whole way home I'm in my head, thinking defeatist thoughts. In spite of it all, my body feels fine. My muscles are churning, pushing me home. Back in the groove already. Why do I mistrust it? The powerhouse of my body takes me home on a breeze. The butterfly on my seat reminding me of who I have become.