Wednesday, August 18, 2010

About

I started riding again on Friday. It had been three weeks since I broke my big toe, I could fit into a shoe (mostly), and I was sick of riding an exercise bike at the gym.

With this latest break, I realize just how incredibly specific an exercise unicycling is in terms of muscle use. I worked out very hard at the gym, but even riding 15 minutes on the unicycle is quite tiring now. There are just so many more muscles being used to coordinate not falling on my ass.

Eli 9.0 is at Camp Half-Blood this week, and it's at McKinney Falls State Park, which is southeast of Austin. He's a big fan of morning camps, but this one goes from 8-5, so it's a full day. This camp has a legendary reputation, though, and based on Eli's reaction to the first two days, it's entirely deserved.  The camp is leaving a week-long story around the Percy Jackson books, and for Eli, the level of drama is positively Shakespearean.

McKinney Falls is a fairly rustic park, even though it's not that far from town, with thick woods and scenic waterfalls. Okay, I guess it's a little ragged, but it's still cool, and there's a heavily-cracked asphalt trail that runs for 2.8 miles inside the park.

I came to pick Eli up on Monday, and decided to come about an hour early so that I could ride. The trail was more narrow than I expected, and it was hot as hell (101), but it was still quite beautiful. I rode for about 20 minutes, and in that time, three deer ran across the trail in front of me. I managed not to fall (always a bonus), and when I got back to the car and sat down, I poured sweat in buckets. I drank a quart of Powerade, and felt no longing for Frost Riptide Rush.

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