obstacles
Occasionally, nature throws little obstacles in your path that totally throw off your rhythm:
This is what I encountered about 3 miles into my trail ride yesterday afternoon (and then again about 8 miles in, because it’s a five mile loop)…a very large tree fallen over the path, pretty much right after a blind turn. For a sense of scale, that wall of foliage is around twelve feet high.
Of course, if life presents an obstacle, you find a way around it. My way was a nice wide detour through the thick underbrush in the wood, carrying the bike (those woods have big thorns which have destroyed one tire tube already) and coming around on the other side.
Pretty picture? Yep. Metaphor for life? Meh.