Some Days You Have It
and some days you don't. This morning I most definitely didn't have it. Maybe it was the last second decision to commute by bike, maybe it was the light rain and fog, maybe it was the beer I drank before bed or maybe it was the 10 pounds of food in my now favorite pack, the Ergon BD2 or maybe it was just because my out of shapeness has finally caught up to me and a week off the bike had given me dead legs. One of those things or all of them, I'm not quite sure but I can tell you that this morning's ride sucked donkey d*ck! BUT, and that is a capital but, it was a ride and the only way to get the riding legs back is to ride so ride I did. (four rides in one sentence, now if I can figure out how to get four rides in one week I'd be golden)
Maine is in the tweener season right now. Not quite cold enough for everything to be frozen on the trails but damp enough that any ride leaves you feeling guilty about trail damage. To top that off, there is just enough mushy, slurpee making snow on that ground that riding is pretty much impossible anyway. Sunday I had to abort a trail ride after less than 20 minutes because I was doing more walking than riding and ended up doing a bit of trail reconnaissance around the house instead. I'm starting to get a feel for the spaghetti trail system for next summer so it wasn't all bad. The good news is that we've had a fair amount of rain recently and tomorrow starts a cold snap with temps never climbing out of the 20's so if all goes as planned, the snow and trails will be frozen solid so all I'll need for a ripping good time is to mount the studded tires and an extra layer of clothing.
4 comments:
Don't curse the snow, embrace it. Strap some planks to your feet and ski it. XC skiing boosts cardio fitness faster than riding.
I say death to xc skiing. snowshoeing I enjoy but the two whopping times I've xc skied I died a thousand deaths.
Winter is almost my favorite time to ride we just don't have enough snow for the snowmobile trails to be ridden yet.
I've died a thousand deaths the first few times too, but now I die only a few hundred deaths each time I go out. The way I see it, XC skiing gets all the dying behind you before spring rolls along. Interestingly, I averaged a higher speed XC sking in the mountains on Sunday with dead legs than mountain biking dirt on the Cape on Saturday. Speaking of the Cape, if you ever want to sample some mid winter dirt, let me know. I'll be making frequent pilgramages.
ooooohhhhhh, I'd love to ride down there sometime. I'll definitely be up for a trip after the holidays.
back when we bought snowshoes we considered getting xc skis as well but our snow here is so fickle that they wouldn't be used enough to be useful.
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