looping: standard
Sometimes you just want to ride the same damn thing
For the days when I want to go for a ride but do not want to think about where to go I have a standard loop.
I say a standard loop, but it’s more like a set of standard loops to suit weather, time, laziness and bike. Some of them are a quick 50 minutes on the gravel bike, others are 150k to my favourite cafe. The odd one isn’t even a loop but an out and back. What they all have in common is that I can do them without route planning or much paying attention to the map as I go.
The familiarity is nice as is knowing that you don’t have unexpected junctions to miss or a map that doesn’t reflect the territory. You can just pedal. Even on a longish route it’s surprising how much is memorised; potholes, tricky bends, good views, village shops, bad surfaces, good surfaces. Not memorised in a “can list all these from cold” sense but you get to a bit of the route and the brain goes “this is the bit where the bend tightens unexpectedly” and you know what to do.
It also means small improvements - roads that have been resurfaced or a normally wet bit of trail being dry - that would be unremarkable provide small moments of joy.
The short loop I do on the gravel bike is my “I would just like some quick exercise” has evolved so it is good regardless of the weather and I ride it more weeks than not. I can probably get round without making a single choice about where to put the bike. There are sections I expect if you mapped the tyre tracks they would barely stray across months worth of rides. Equally there are times where I look at a section anew and a whole new option occurs and it’s a delight for the familiar to become unfamiliar, even if only to a small extent.
The standard loop is, I guess, a little like going to the gym to exercise. You really can just zone out into the exercise and the time passes in a haze of almost unthinking action. But also, if you really want to push it you can do so in the knowledge that you can focus purely on the effort with little heed to navigation. And yet you are outside, travelling through the world and there is always the possibility for the unexpected and beautiful even if it is only the light catching the treetops.