Two Wheel Blogs

I have been sort of busy lately. Between travel and work, I have not had the time to report what is going on here.

Friday.

Took off early from work to go to St. Louis for a little riding and unwinding. Went up to 2-old's crib for a little conversation before the monthly night ride at Castlewood. 2-old was a bit under the weather, but being the trooper that he is, he joined me for the ride. We were the first to arrive at the park, and we wanted to be the last to leave (like the freeloading party-goers that we are).

As we pulled up, so did the park ranger. He came up and said what was going on and suggested where we ride and not ride. By about 6:15 we were riding. The trails were quite good considering the weather we have had lately. We noticed other riders showing up every time we passed the parking lot at first, then later noticed the cars disappearing each time we passed. Our plan was to ride the longest so we could brag about braving the cold weather the longest (it was about 10 degrees). We made a pit stop at the ranger station before our last lap and determined that: 1. the last group was leaving; 2. only one car other than ours remained; and 3. The ranger was going to end the ride early due to very cold weather, and low attendance. This was the shot that 2-old needed to dig deeper for one more lap.

Alas, when we finished the last lap another car had arrived and the ranger decided to continue the ride until 10:00 (as originally advertised). 2-old probably should not have even been riding in the first place due to his illness, but he sucked it up and had a good ride...I have never seen him ride so aggressively....he was absolutely flying. All told, we got in a little over 2 hours of good riding.

Saturday

No riding today, I stayed in St. Louis and the rest of my family joined me for a tour of the Magic House. We called up Pete and asked his family to join us too. Fortunately, he did but his wife was out of town. Our kids had a remarkable time. I have never seen these five kids play so hard for so long. They were a lot like pin-balls bouncing around from attraction to attraction. It was really something. If you have kids between 3 and 7, you need to take them to this place...it is incredible.

Sunday

The day started out pretty typical. Took the family out for some coffee at one of our favorite places, then went to Church and Sunday School. On the way home, I called G-wiz and inquired about riding. He bowed out and stated that he was tired from a 25 mile gravel road ride the day before (I won't tell you what my wife said, G). Once I got home, I rushed out to get some riding in before the pre-game festivities we had planned.

I hit the trails around 11:00 and noticed that the snow was deeper and crunchier here than in St. Louis. I also noticed that someone was riding out there. I knew this because there were fresh tire prints in the snow...I recognized these prints and I only knew of one guy that had these tires...but the foot prints next to the tire tracks in the steep sections were not cleat-ed. The foot prints were like tennis shoes...so it couldn't be Cary.

By the time I completed the Green and Blue loops, Rainbow, and Water's Edge, I started back up Lakeside and then ran into Cary (he was wearing over-shoes to stay warm). It was cool to find someone else riding on such a cold day with such lousy trail conditions....any North facing hillside had snow upwards to 5 inches deep with a hard icy crust on top. It made riding very difficult. Sharing the suffering was sweet. We finished our lap of all Binder has to offer and Cary was going to head home...I was determined to get some more riding done. I rode a bit more, then received the call to assist my dad with some work. All told, I got a bit over 3 hours of fairly high intensity riding in some technically difficult conditions. Got that deep down body ache that makes me feel good about life.

I wish the weather would be a bit more cooperative for me to train for Ouachita...I guess, I am just going to have to keep suffering in the cold. I must say though, the added layers of clothing do make it a lot tougher to ride. The added weight, the decreased mobility of joints, the increase resistance to motion from all the cloths....these things add up to good training. I am not planning on a big finish, just want to have fun. I really hope riding like this is making me stronger so I can enjoy the trails in Arkansas even more.