Just plain sick...

This guy is good, very good.


Weekend report?
Austin had a soccer game Saturday morning, so everyone in the house was up and running early. Austin is pretty funny to watch. I will upload a video of it. Basically he is a bit of a space cadet who orbits around the other players. I am going to have to get out and spend some time practicing with him. Was going to work on that yesterday, but the weather was again uncooperative. Another Tornado warning too.

I snuck off for a ride Saturday afternoon. Figured I would dail in my tire and shock pressure at the trail head. Well in typical form I arrive just as a group of familiar faces is about to head out. So of course I just hop on and start riding. It quickly turns into a fast paced ride. Between Tim and Jim we (Clay and I) are getting a workout. There were a couple of short breaks to regroup. Only decent break was at the three benches. I snapped a picture of the crew...

Roll call (left to right): Gary, Jim, Me, Clay, Robert, Tim

Gary was a stragler that joined us for the ride. Turns out he is a pretty good match for our B-team. I ended up chatting with him for a while after the ride. Hope to hook up and ride with him again sometime this week if the weather cooperates.

We kept our ride to the top end of the mountain. The water table is too high to do much of the lower trails. I think the entire ride clocked in at just under 12mi. I am still amazed at the terain here. That ride took just shy of 3 hours and I was totally wiped when done. In contrast in CA I could have covered over 20mi in the same time. The rocky terrain just saps speed and requires full body effort to keep momentum. At any rate, we zig-zagged around the mountain side for a good while. Then we got split up and 2 riders exited for the afternoon. I was left in Tim's dust trying to catch up to the other 2 riders who had taken a different turn. No breaks, just hammered back the direction they headed. I was somewhat releived when I got back to three benches and didn't catch them. I took a well deserved rest before carrying on. Even then I only made it to the bottom of Mountain Mist. I bonked and ended up hiking out the last 2/3rd mile to the bikers lot. Only the second time I have had to walk the climb.

Here is the bike sitting ready for more. Erin has officially dubbed it the "Homewrecker". Ah well, can't win them all.



So there you have it 12mi, 3hr, and totally cashed out. Definitely need more saddle time if I am going to be doing any of the bigger 15-18mi loops.