Night ride, axe wielding Dominatrix some much needed fitness

77ric

Night ride, axe wielding Dominatrix, some much needed fitness and my chocolate foot.


So I finish work early on a Wednesday well by early I mean 6pm, and I've decided that I need to ride more to work on some fitness that has been lost during the xmas rush and general winter lethargy. So Wednesday evenings seem like a great opportunity tog get in some night riding (praise the lord for Magicshine lights and Fenix torches) so last night I got my kit together ready for tonight, batteries charged, some spares for the Fenix etc. Now with today being such a lovely bright blue skied day if somewhat baltic, i'd been getting more excited as I counted the hours and then the minutes till the glorious time to clock out. I fast marched home as a warm up got in got changed and got out, straight along to the locals in a nearby country park. My god the stars are bright when your away from street lighting.


Now I'm not scared of the dark, nor am I am I scared of being alone in the woods by myself, what I scared of is the axe wielding Dominatrix with 12" of hard black rubber attached to… well I'll let you guess where. Well ok perhaps there is no such person but it seems that while I'm riding as hard as possible and trying to keep track of the trail obstacles that I'm hurtling towards, the back of my mind still has time to think up some scary sh*t.

As I need to gain some fitness I figured I should push myself harder than I normally would, use a higher gear on the climbs and grind up them. Spin as fast as my jelly soft legs until they felt like they were made of jelly. Pushing myself as hard as I felt was safe, right up until i could feel my calfs were on the cusp of cramping.

I mentioned earlier that my mind seems to be able to keep track of the trail in front of me, while thinking some strange stuff, yet why sometimes do I find it difficult to do that at work where it might help me score a wage rise (to spend on shiny bike bling). It occurred to me that I always ride left foot forward, despite the fact that my right leg is the stronger one, don't know why but hey. I tried to go switch, but it just feels wrong any tips are most welcome of course.

Now to cut a long story short, I have just had one of the best rides I have ever experienced and it's only the second one of the year. Now if the rest of the year continues this way then it going to be one fantastic year. Long live the mountain bike.

Right, now that I've stopped blethering' pish, I'm away to make something to eat, have a hot bath with bubbles (go on question my sexuality, how many of you had a lone night ride tonight?), and a long hard think about that Dominatrix

Ric.

cat_with_no_tail

I know what you mean. No axe wielding strap-on wearing women for me though.

In tight singletrack I do sometimes get an.....uneasy feeling. Hard to describe it really. Even when I'm thinking it I know it's completely irrational.

Night riding does kick ass though. It's a great way to spice up even the most mundane of local loops. Everything always seems so much different in the dark.

projectsome

lol I get this during the day, there's an old railway station and caves etc near where I ride and it's also right next to the river. and it's uphill on the way out

77ric

It's awesome, the tunnel vision the sense of increased speed, maybe it's just that you can't see anything outside the beam of the lights. I just hope I can keep the devil may care trail attitude when the light evenings come in, tonight I was popping off every rock and chunky root I cared to find without really concerning myself with what lay ahead. I know there's nothing untoward there I know the loop pretty well but when you can see the run out well in advance I pay to much attention to it rather than just getting the flow on.

Tonight, and Thursdays early morning jaunt in the snow are the first rides where i have really ridden the meta in anger since i got it in June. Heres to many more rides day or night like it.

Northwind

Forget the dominatrix, it's that blair witch you want to watch out for. WoooOOOOooooOOOOoo

Petty Vagrant

I've been searching all my local woods for a dom like that for months with no luck!!

I love night riding and especially when plugged into my ipod with Pendulum rattling my eardrums. I work on the theory that at night in the woods with my two P7s shining I don't need to hear anyone or anything as anything there can see me and get out the way! So far it's only been rabbits, foxes and the odd badger ( by odd I mean it was wearing a bowler hat and smoking a pipe whilst leaning against a tree!)

belugabob

Sometimes, during a night ride in the woods, I'm sure that I can hear Banjos...

.blitz

77ric wrote:

how many of you had a lone night ride tonight.

Been riding solo on Cannock Chase at night since 1998. All year round.

Never seen a ghost, alien, werewolf, panther, mad axeman or any of that sh*t. I make a point of finding somewhere mega dark, switch all the lights off and eat a banana.

It's all in the mind.

VWsurfbum

I was out last night, there were two of us but i was the one lacking last night, i usually lead, after the very long climb at the start of the ride, my brother looks back at me and says " i just saw about 100 eyes looking straight at me!" where we ride there's loads of Deer and you have to be a bit carefull when they run accross your path or just sare at you as you pass :shock:
its my first year of night riding and i must say i have loved every min of it. even last night where i was on a new bike, icy, snowey and extremely cold.

bails87

.blitz wrote:

77ric wrote:

how many of you had a lone night ride tonight.

Been riding solo on Cannock Chase at night since 1998. All year round.

Never seen a ghost, alien, werewolf, panther, mad axeman or any of that sh*t. I make a point of finding somewhere mega dark, switch all the lights off and eat a banana.

It's all in the mind.

I think stopping helps tbh. When I'm hurtling along I can almost feel 'creatures' behind me. then I'll stop for a gate or something. And realise that there's nothing there, apart from the rabbit caught in my lights. Then that scampers off and I can just stand around for a few minutes with the lights off. Start moving and the 'chase mentality' sets in again though!

The thing is, I know that it's absolutely stupid, I'm the biggest, loudest, scariest (and definitely brightest) thing in the woods. Everything else has scarpered long before I get there.

.blitz

bails87 wrote:

The thing is, I know that it's absolutely stupid, I'm the biggest, loudest, scariest (and definitely brightest) thing in the woods. Everything else has scarpered long before I get there.

Apart from the rutting stags of course

cat_with_no_tail

bails87 wrote:

.blitz wrote:

77ric wrote:

how many of you had a lone night ride tonight.

Been riding solo on Cannock Chase at night since 1998. All year round.

Never seen a ghost, alien, werewolf, panther, mad axeman or any of that sh*t. I make a point of finding somewhere mega dark, switch all the lights off and eat a banana.

It's all in the mind.

I think stopping helps tbh. When I'm hurtling along I can almost feel 'creatures' behind me. then I'll stop for a gate or something. And realise that there's nothing there, apart from the rabbit caught in my lights. Then that scampers off and I can just stand around for a few minutes with the lights off. Start moving and the 'chase mentality' sets in again though!

The thing is, I know that it's absolutely stupid, I'm the biggest, loudest, scariest (and definitely brightest) thing in the woods. Everything else has scarpered long before I get there.

I think it probably has something to to with the conscious and subconscious minds. When you are barreling along, your conscious mind is focused hard on what you are doing leaving your subconscious to turn to thoughts of werewolves carrying axes and strap-ons and such things of fantasy. Then you stop, you dont need to concentrate so hard and your conscious mind tells your subconscious to STFU and you carry on.

Putting the old A-level psychology to good use there

bails87

.blitz wrote:

bails87 wrote:

The thing is, I know that it's absolutely stupid, I'm the biggest, loudest, scariest (and definitely brightest) thing in the woods. Everything else has scarpered long before I get there.

Apart from the rutting stags of course

Ah, we don't have those round here. :shock:

I'm still brighter than them though!

Northwind

bails87 wrote:

The thing is, I know that it's absolutely stupid, I'm the biggest, loudest, scariest (and definitely brightest) thing in the woods. Everything else has scarpered long before I get there.

No wild boars near yours? of the short list of british animals not to **** with they come quite high up, for me, and I know there's a few around here.

(the most dangerous animals in britain are the large raptors, the reason being, you look up and go "Hey cool, a buzza..." and ride into a tree)

bellys

I love night rides 99% of the time...out 1 night about 5miles from home in a country park (reddish vale) this trail was covered with trees the only light was from my bike then i hear a clunk and my back wheel locks get off the bike sorry feel off the bike to find iv hit a tree stump ripped my rear mech off and snapped my chain...FFS now what time to walk took all the snapped bits off and started tofree wheel the bloody thing it was scary as f****k i seen thing down there that night that iv never seen before when i told my mate he infromed me its alocal Dogging spot :oops: the girl my light was staring at did not look to shy.....YES i now ride past slow and with no light on to make sure i dont make any 1 jump P.s iv not told the wife she might want to join me :roll:

77ric

Cat With No Tail wrote:

I think it probably has something to to with the conscious and subconscious minds. When you are barreling along, your conscious mind is focused hard on what you are doing leaving your subconscious to turn to thoughts of werewolves carrying axes and strap-ons and such things of fantasy. Then you stop, you dont need to concentrate so hard and your conscious mind tells your subconscious to STFU and you carry on.

Putting the old A-level psychology to good use there

actually thats a fair point, when i stopped for a breather there was no thoughts of anything scary at all. well except for the stop at the top of a nice descent, as i had a drink from my bottle in complete silence a nearby owl screeched, bloody shat myself i did.