…Faster than Last

6:00am – Southern Kettles – “…slight chance of rain in the early morning…”

Right.  How about 100% chance of a monsoon.  I had plans to ride the Bluemound trails outside of Madison today with a friend, but he bailed.  So I thought I’d take a nice long solo tour of the Kettles.  A chance of light rain was fine with me.  As I drove, I could see the temp dropping and then the very light rain started.  Not a problem, I had arm warmers and it was only 56 – perfect for a long ride.

By the time I reached the parking lot I think Noah was just rounding up the last pair of animals on Earth.  I seriously considered aborting, but I was pretty set on riding.  The trails were in really good shape – rain was sheeting off the hard pack  like someone had waxed it.  So far, so good.

Once I got about 2 miles in, I realized it wasn’t going to let up, and I didn’t want to be the jackass that tore up the trails riding them in the extreme wet, so I cut it short and headed back to the parking lot.  The only good thing was that I finally got to see the new Orange trail, and I can’t wait to go back and take some hot laps.

Multiple rides next week before WORS #4 in Kewauskum on the 13th.  That course is all climbing and no real single-track, so I’ll really get to see if my training is up to par or not.

No work today, taking the kids to the Dells for the next 2 days.  Got the day started off right with the virgin ride on the single speed I cobbled together out of a 20-year-old Cannondale.  did 10 miles to the WAC, taught SPIN and 10 miles back.  I forgot I sold my chain tensioner on eBay, so the chain came off about 7 times.  Other than that it’s a fun bike.  Can’t wait to try out a few Pukers on it.

I feel like a turd this morning.  Hung out with (non-cycling) friends all weekend and ate and drank.  Fun.

Not really.  One party like that goes a long way. Now I feel like I haven’t moved in eons.

Riding to teach SPIN tomorrow @ 6am, then riding home and heading to the Dells with my kids to ride water slides until we barf.  Friday is my first ride at the Bluemound trails, with Jason Balden.  I’ve heard it’s short but technical.  Jason gets stronger the longer he rides, so it should be a ball-buster.

http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/blue-mound-state-park.html

Today was supposed to be an off day.  Then my friend Kevin, who I haven’t ridden with since the Trek 100 last year, sent me an email about riding this morning.  OK, a nice easy recovery ride…

60 miles of Holy Hill Lake Country roads later at 19.7 mph, I was done.  And it was 8:15 am.

Tonight: Guinness and friends.  Tomorrow’s plan: Sleep.  DO NOT RIDE.

Did the Thursday morning Puker today.  Felt great, no rest for me – did 3 laps while the other riders took a break.  We were only going at 75%, so it was a great start to the day.  Found out my Blackberry GPS app, which I’ve used to record most of my 2010 mileage with, is off (low) by about 10%.  Sweeet!

Starbucks afterwards and then off to work.

Teaching a 2 hour class once a month at 5:30am seemed like a great idea a year and a half ago.  I do get a good workout, but on mornings like this when it’s 75 and sunny, it is torture spinning on a fake bike in a dark basement for 2 hours when I could be outside…

Was supposed to ride with a new North Shore group this morning @ 5:15, so I set my alarm for 4;15 and then forgot to turn it on.

Woke up at 5:05 – too late to drive 30 miles to the ride in 10 minutes, so I did a solo Lake Country route:

Brookfield out around Pewaukee, Nashota and Nagawicka Lakes to Oconomowoc. 42.5 miles, 1660 ft of climbing and 20.2 average speed.  I wish I could have just kept going, 77 degrees and sunny with a slight headwind on the way back.

Awesome morning.