My riding buddy and I were supposed to meet at 6am to go mountain biking this morning. I dragged my carcass out of bed and made it to our proposed meeting spot at the designated time but my buddy didn’t show. Normally this would suck big time but today it didn’t bother me at all. It would have been great had he shown up but it wasn’t a problem that he didn’t.
You see for me getting in a morning ride pre-work is always a difficult proposition. Actually the mountain biking isn’t the hard part. It’s the getting up to ride at 5:30ish that is extremely difficult for me. Since I know that I am supposed to be meeting my riding buddy at the trailhead I have a bit of accountability to make sure I get out there on time and ready to ride. It makes me get up and go in the morning.
The perfect timing of this whole thing was that my buddy texts me at about 6:10 just when I decided to set off and ride solo. This was actually a great time to text me because if he texted me 20 minutes earlier then I probably would have retreated back to bed to get some more sleep. But by waiting until 6:10 he made sure that I was at the trailhead and couldn’t really turn around and go back home. By texting me at 6:10 he made sure that I was just about ready to start the ride and he saved me the excruciating agony of wondering if I left too early and left my friend at the trailhead hanging… an uncomfortable thought to have as you ride.
So, just to recap: The Perfect Time to text/call someone to let them know you’re bailing on them is NEVER. But if you have to, try to reach your riding buddy between the time they arrive at the trailhead and the time they push off to start their ride. Any earlier and you run the risk of your buddy cancelling on himself. Any later and you make your friend worry that he ditched you at the trailhead.
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