Failure to Success

Last night's commute home seemed destined to fail.  On the road with the Mukluk I totally wasn't feeling it and wanted to just ride straight home but if there is one thing that I've learned about the mukluk is that with 5-10 psi in the tires (it's too low for the pump to register so I'm just guessing here) riding on pavement is about as much fun as shoving splinters under your fingernails.  Short stints between trails?  No problem.  Seven miles?  Kill me now.  So, I figured even if my legs felt like two sausage casings stuffed with yesterday's enchilada feast aftermath (that would be sausage casings stuffed with poo for you slow types) it would be better to slog it out through the woods than die a slow agonizing death on the road.  Plus, this boy needs some exercise stat and a 1/2 hour commute just wasn't going to cut it.

Once to the trail head it took me approximately 3 seconds to consider turning around.  There was one set of xc ski tracks and a few footprints to ride in which just wasn't cutting it.  The snow itself wasn't firm enough to ride on top of and it was too crunchy to keep momentum if you broke through so I dumped all of my gears and concentrated on riding inside of the xc track.  There is some good skill building for you.  Next time you are out, try riding at 2-3 mph in a track that is slippery and only 8" wide.  It was hard but it was a good balance/core workout.

Let's see YOU ride this!

Eventually, even the ski trail petered out and I was forced to walk for a while until I got into the Preserve proper where there was some snowmobile and foot traffic.  The snowmobile sections were fricking sweet and got my mojo amped back up so that when I hit the singletrack and all of the foot traffic I was moving at a better clip, the legs were feeling better and my motivation was refocused.

the singletrack was kind of fun in a rattle your fillings out sort of way.

Eventually, I made it to the trails in and around our property and found them to be the best so far.  I hit them either snowshoeing or running every day so they had been well packed down and weren't as lumpy so I was able to hit them pretty hard and end the ride on a very good note.  Sadly, we've got snow coming today (8-12") so all of those trails will need to be reestablished but I'm down with the snowshoeing too.

Yesterday's ride rating:  One precariously balanced squirrel and one stuffed bra for good measure.

On another note, starting today (maybe I'll even do it retroactively back to the start of the new year) I'll be keeping track of my riding and running miles/hours here on the blog.  I've been asked multiple times (2) recently about how many miles I put in in a year and I honestly have no idea so I'm going to try to keep a running tally at the end of each day's post.  We'll see how long this lasts.

1-11-11
Run time: 25 minutes
Ride time: 2:05 mtb
Ride distance: 18 miles

Total time: 2:05
Total distance: 18 miles