Rides of Varying Lengths & Qualities

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The past “work” week did not hold much in the way of riding, just a short 15 mile mountain bike ride sandwiched in between 1.5 hour workouts at Maury’s. Thankfully that changed on Saturday, sort of.

Saturday

Hit or miss rain showers and 40˚ temperatures had me opting to keep my ass inside riding the trainer and watching football on the laptop whilst doing so instead of embracing the cold, damp, shitty end of fall’s stick.

I took advantage of NBC’s brilliant Extra Time and chose to watch Aston Villa vs. West Ham. That would prove to be a mistake. BUT it was cool to have something besides the music in my ears to occupy my time while pedaling and going nowhere.

I ended up riding, or “riding” for 1:45, and watched that entire piss-poor 0-0 match in the progress. I don’t mind a 0-0 draw if there is quality play, but sadly, this was NOT one of those matches in my opinion. Big Sam let me down.

bigsamsaysBig Sam says “NO GOALS FOR YOU PONCE! NOW RIDE AND GO NOWHERE FAST!”

I didn’t really plan on the trainer but I made the best of it, put in some nice tempo riding, burned a lot calories and put in more than a few hard efforts. Thankfully I would not have to stay inside on Sunday.

Sunday

After I slept in ’till 9:30 (actually 8:30 due that blissful thing we call “setting the clocks back”), I watched ANOTHER freaking 0-0 draw on TV. Christ! Can anyone score a fucking goal?? Spurs played well but Everton’s defense was more than up for it. This match was at least better to watch as both teams played well, just no goals. Wait, this isn’t a football blog, its’ a cycling-ISH blog. Sorry…

After I ate, digested and came to grips with another 0-0 draw, I chamoised up and headed out for a 70/30 dirt road ride on the Jake The Snake. (By the way, 70/30 means that about 70% of the ride was on dirt and gravel roads).

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Temps were crisp, but comfortable. and I headed south of town so as to find some extra lumps to climb (none pictured). Some of the roads were in good condition, and others (as you can see above) were less than desirable. Still, I plodded on and felt pretty damn swell, happy to be outside.

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As a sub-par, not that good, but I do it anyway photographer it was nice to have something to click at other than fallen leaves. Like SHEEP! Thank God I had a “date night” last night or I MAY have been tempted by these hay-hungry sheep. (Joking. But not really).

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Speaking of “date night,” I found a place to do some shopping before our next one…

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For the most part the ride was swell and I got in about 38 miles. The only downsides were that early in the ride I vurped coffee on myself…

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The right leg took a warm, caffeinated, eggy, sausagey hit, but I’ve done a lot worse.

The other, much sadder, downside was at about mile 32 of 38 when I passed a recently erected Ghost Bike out on the intersection of Baseline and Meridian. As a cyclist, seeing a Ghost Bike is NEVER a cool thing to see and it was a bit emotional to ride by it.

Once that was out of my system it was back to just putting the hammer down, as now the clouds moved in, I was going into the headwind and it was starting to get cold.

I was happy to get out today and happier still that I felt good. I have a lot of work to do this fall and winter on my fitness and weight but I am up for it. This week I will be upping my trips to Maury’s to three times and squeezing in rides where  I can.

Photo of “Big Sam” found via foreverwestham.com. All the others were taken by and belong to me.

 

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