good riding lately

I feel really fortunate that I've been able to get out on the bike 3 of the last 3 days. That's pretty much unheard of in the life of a husband/father/bike shop owner! Sunday's tour de snowpacked Hall on the Redline Monocog Flight 29 was so much fun that Chad, Chris, and I opted for a repeat on Monday afternoon. It was a perfect New Years Eve ride. It's also crazy how fast conditions change at Hall, too. Sunday was 99% snowpack with a couple sections that looked like they were going to start melting soon. Monday was already down to only 60% snowpack. We were lucky that the dirt was still frozen, otherwise it would've been super sloppy. Riding with Chris and Chad makes me spend more time catching my breath than anything else. I guess that's good training. I did manage to catch 1 picture, though.
We even ran into Jim on his poo brown Transition Preston FR. Here he is pointing at an incoming rider and saying, "we should move or Eric will run us over." It was good to see Eric, too.

Today, Tuesday, New Years day called for a little bit more saddle time. Now that it's officially 2008, I'm officially needing to get my ass in shape if I want to complete the White Rim/1 Day ride without keeling over in a near death position at the end of the ride. Locals Dan and Chris as well as Strongmont resident Bill showed up on cyclocross steeds ready to pedal. We left at 1:15pm, and the 38 degree temps felt great. It was brisk to start, but we quickly warmed up and the ride (a tour of mostly flatish dirt roads) was great. I noticed that it was starting to feel a little brisk when I got home at 4. The temp had dropped to 18 degrees. Brr. That called for an old timey recovery meal for me. Back in my racing days, when 3 hrs in 20 degrees was a common occurence, my favorite thing to do as soon as I got in was to pop a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster, then saturate them with honey when they're nice and hot. Thankfully, it's still as good as it ever was. mmmm, honey :) With that big ride on the horizon, it looks like the toast and honey recovery snack will be a bit more commonplace. I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year from Redstone, everyone. Hope 2008 will be as good as 2007!

~dave