tonight's ride.... well, this afternoon's ride

today I went in early... real early... tomorrow I need to be in by 7am so I better throw this down quick
to out early and went out for an endurance dirt loop that I do from time to time
okay, I do not do it as often as I would like or as often as I should
but... today I was excited to be able to fit this endurance dirt loop into my day
I need some miles on my mountain bike
any miles
my body needs to grow familiar with this bike again
the positioning of the legs
the balance of the upper body

this post work ride was not decided as I left work
to a certain degree most post work rides are dictated by what bike I have selected in the morning
it can take some planning as bikes may need to be prepped or tunned
so my geared Karate Monkey had to be ready to ride to work if I wanted to ride it after work

things panned out as planned
got out of work after my straight eight
got straight on the bike

went down that same old path down M Street
that same street that takes me to so many biking options

on this day my trajectory was clear
I went down to the Capitol Cresecent Trail, moved onto towpath along side of the the C&O Canal, then over the foot bridge off the towpath then up the trail to MacArther Blvd
across the one lane bridge
across the road and through the parking lot towards the toddler park
I immediately dismounted and started a little hike-a-bike on the most technical section of the cabin john trails

it was a good up and back
it felt great
the pace was not fantastic
there was a great amount of warm up an equal amount of cool down
with some tastee singletrack stuck in the middle
not as much single track as I would have liked
but I was working on a time budget
rolled into across the start line in roughly three hours and then finished the pedal home
the legs could feel it
it felt good

got home and lisa and I took the dogs and the boys into the woods
dean brought some climbing rope
he wanted to climb a tree
there was this big search for a tree to climb
there was this big thing that the rope had to be slung over his shoulder
we eventually found a tree or two for the rope and some climbing
one little tree hung in such a way that I tied a loop at the base of the rope
allowing the boys to stand in the loop and swing
it was over leaves
I spotted grant pretty close
gave dean some space

the hike was good for me after my ride
not just good for my body
but good for my soul