crunch, crunch

A year ago, I wouldn't have batted an eyelash at jumping in the saddle and riding 50 miles.  Sure, my legs might be a little crunchy, but nothing I couldn't walk off within a couple of days.


30 minutes in the saddle this morning, and my legs are grumbling at me.


Hmmmm.


Someone's a bit out of shape, methinks.


Yes, I admit it: I've spent most of the summer hibernating indoors, venturing over to the barn enough to maintain Mimi's feet and make sure she has plenty of her flax/beet pulp mix she gets.  But riding?  Eh, not so much.  One four-mile trail ride a couple months ago.  A couple rides around the neighborhood, maybe a miles' worth of distance.  A handful of arena sessions.


All of this adds up to one out-of-shape rider.  Not that I'm completely out of shape.  I've spent a good portion of the summer helping my father with some of the larger carpet cleaning jobs...not exactly a low-impact activity.  Add to that the frequent petsitting jobs and the walking of said pets, and my cardio isn't doing too bad.  It's just the riding muscles that are suffering.


I'd like to say that fall is just around the corner, and nicer weather will be more incentive to ride, but we're nowhere close to being out of the woods yet.  In fact, I think my rearview mirror thermometer in my truck just might have gotten busted today, since it refused to actually register a temperature for outside on the drive home.  Its poor, overwhelmed little brain was giving me an Ice warning.  Hah!


I'm now hugging the a/c back home and downing an iced coffee.  When I left Pony, she was employing the do-it-yourself swamp cooler method: standing herself, still wet from the shower I gave her, in front of her stall-mounted fan.  And nibbling on a cool, salty, bran-and-beet pulp sloppy I gave her.  Not a bad life.


But it's this time of year that fish pond in the backyard starts looking real attractive.  That, or I contemplate why my parents though a fish pond over a swimming pool was a good idea.


As a final random aside: I know my last number of posts have been completely picture destitute, and as a result, probably kind of boring.  I'm working on changing that.  I have pictures, i just need to get them uploaded/sorted/edited.  But as a preview, Happy!Pony:

That was from our ride out at Estrella Mtn Park in March...still a lil' fuzzy from winter, but looking so chipper and happy.