Lucy got up early for a Sunday. Downstairs for breakfast and checking the weather, typical spring with sunshine and showers. She then washed and dressed, choosing her cycling outfit and knowing it was going to get (hopefully) covered in mud. Blue leggings with a patterned panel on the outside of the leg, a pink t shirt, trainers and her bright pink cycling jacket. She opened her dresser drawer and found her digital watch, a grey and pink timex marathon that she had had for years. It was looking a bit battered by now but was her faithful stopwatch when out for a run or bike ride. She put it on, wearing it on the inside of her wrist like she always did before checking the time and date were correct, she was then good to go.

The first bit of the ride was on normal roads to get out of town, then they opened into the roads across the forest. She pulled into a car park splashing through the muddy puddles. There were a few cyclists there and she stopped and chatted to a couple who were putting their bikes away. Looking at them, they were both splashed in mud with dark lines up their backs from the spray. She asked how it was, hoping she sounded like someone who wanted to avoid the worst areas of mud even though the opposite was true. They gave her some advice about the tracks they went on and one they got stuck on before turning around. Lucy knew where it was and she was planning to ride their anyway. Now knowing that there was deep mud in that area, she was definitely going to check it out!
She cycled on through the edge of the forest on a gravel and mud track. There had been some work going on in the forest recently and there were deep ruts on the softer parts of the track filled with muddy water. She splashed through these and could feel the mud and water getting sprayed up her back. Her front was also getting splashed with mud, she could have had mud guards on her bike, but where would be the fun in that? She carried on to a junction and turned left downhill. This would lead her to the part where the couple she spoke to in the car park got stuck and turned around.

The track got worse but she managed to keep her balance well. She had purposely been riding through mud for years so her balance was very good and she was careful to keep in the right gear. The water filled ruts were getting deeper and she was pedalling hard to keep moving, water and mud splattering her as she rode through. One deep one caught her out though. She pedalled through and the front wheel suddenly dipped deeper and stopped. Lucy swore as she managed to stop herself going over the handlebars but jumped off to the side, dropping her bike and falling on her bum in the mud. She pushed her hands into the mud to try and push herself up, but her hands sunk up to her wrists in the soft, wet mud. She rolled over and managed to get up. She pushed her sleeves up and muddy water ran down both her hands. Feeling hot, she stripped off her jacket and tied it around her waist. She pulled her bike up and looked down at herself before pushing it on. Her trainers were soaked through, her leggings covered in mud. Her top half wasn't too bad, mud was up her arms and she wiped some thick blobs from her watch so she could check the time. She looked around to see where she could go next.

Ahead was a sea of mud where the track got wider and there were piles of logs off to the side. It looked like tractors had been here to take the logs away but with all the turning around, they had trashed the track with the rain turning it to soft mud. She got back on her bike and wobbled off on the slippery mud. She kept in a low gear and kept pedalling steadily before a short downhill sped her up and into the sea of mud. She fought to keep her balance as her shoes dipped into the puddles and she was splattered front and back with mud and water. She kept going for as long as she could, hardly making any progress before the inevitable happened. Her front wheel slipped and when she put her leg down, it just sank. She fell off, feeling like it was happening in slow motion, splatting down in the soft mud on her left side with her bike partly on top of her legs. She caught her breath and started laughing to herself as she looked around. She was probably halfway across the muddiest bit and she was going to have to walk (wade?) her way out.

She pulled out her arms and then tried roll over and push herself up from the mud but she just pushed them into the mud up to her elbows. She dragged her legs free with a loud squelch and carried on trying to push herself up with her arms and legs. It wasn't very thick mud, but it was so soft, nothing to push against. She was soon on her knees in the soft slop and pushing with her arms made it feel like she was trying to swim through the sludge. She finally stood up and looked down at herself as she stood up to her calves in the mud. Her once blue leggings were plastered with mud, no trace of blue left. Her pink tshirt was covered in mud on the side and front and her arms were brown from her finger tips to her elbows. She did her best to wipe the mud from her watch and was eventually able to see the time and that she had been riding for about an hour.

She squelched a few steps to her bike and pulled it from the mud. She pushed it as she walked through the soft sludge trying to find a drier, firmer part of the track. She managed to find a firmer part of the track where she could get on. She managed to get on, riding and splashing along the edge of the muddy track. She rode on further, before stopping, the mud was making it very tiring. She set her bike down and pulled out her water bottle and managed to find a dry bit of t shirt to clean the top on. She needed to sit down, but where? Well she was soaked anyway, so she sat down in the mud, feeling the cold water soak her leggings again. She took a drink and squirted her watch as well so she could read the time. It had taken her another 30 minutes to get to this point, at the edge of the sea of mud. She was starting to feel tired so she pushed herself out of the mud and went to her bike.

Riding on, she got a good rhythm, splashing through puddles and getting splashed in mud. She enjoyed the break riding downhill, controlling her bike as it skittered along the rutted tracks. The track got firmer and then crossed a stream at a ford. Lucy sped up and splashed through the shallow water which cleaned some of the mud off her and her bike. Stopping on the far side, she had an idea, maybe she could use the stream to clean herself up a bit? She turned around and rode her bike into the stream, the water getting deeper until she couldn't ride any further and jumped off. Wading through the stream up to her knees, she scooped up water with her hands to clean the worst off her bike before putting it on the bank out of the water.

She splashed back into the stream and laid down on her back in the cool water, scooping it over her front and washing the worst of the mud off her leggings and t shirt. She rolled over a few times, enjoying the feeling of swimming with all her clothes on. She pulled herself out of the water and got back on her bike. The track now was gravel and easy to ride on. She rode home, slightly cleaner but soaking wet. No one really paid her any attention as she rode home but Lucy enjoyed the feeling of knowing that a short time ago, she was covered in mud.

Getting home, she cleaned her bike before stripping off in the kitchen, showering and putting on clean clothes. She was relaxing with a cup of tea when her housemate came back. 'Did you get up to much?' she asked Lucy. 'Oh, nothing much, went for a bike ride earlier but that was about it' Lucy replied. Thinking about what she had done in the last two days, covering herself in gunge and mud, she thought she could probably tell the truth and still not be believed. But still, better not, just in case.

Finally I've written these, they've been in my head for ages! I have a the next idea for how she will get messy and what she will be wearing and another idea after this. The speed that I get around to writing it, it'll be sometime in 2026! Thanks for reading