Against the Wind

No, not the Bob Seger song, but the theme for today's road riding. After days of rain, no one was complaining much about the wind, but it made riding very tough and sometimes dangerous. It seemed like no matter which direction you traveled, there was always a head wind or cross wind, threatening to push you off the road or into traffic. Still, I took a long 16 mile route to get to the Angel's Race group ride. Road the 15.5 mile course, then back home (shorter route). The wind was continuous and brutal, like riding a mountain bike in sticky mud, I hate it. Steady at 20 to 25 mph and gusting to 35 or more. It was still worth getting out on the bike. Plus, since it's like climbing constantly, it has to make you stronger. I hope tomorrow is calmer though. I'm riding to work, then I'll have about 2 hours to ride before the first of this years Root Beer rides at Blackwater bike shop.

Future

What will my future hold for cycling? I wish I knew. With the demise of the Derailer Series, I feel like I do not have a structured race plan like last year. Of course, I will be riding in some of the XXC races and the Shenandoah 100. And some of the former Derailer races will still go on. Now that I have a good road bike, I will be using it to help train for the endurance mtb races, but the more I ride it, the more I want to keep riding it. So I think i may try to find some road races or crits. I love my mountain bikes, but I finding an equal love for the road bike. Even today, when I got caught in pouring rain on the way home from work, I was still enjoying the ride. I even took a longer route that added a few miles. Decisions decisions... probably will be a mixture of both.

Angel's Race group ride 3/22/09

Every Sunday at 3PM, until the Angel's Race in April, there will be a group ride that starts at the downtown YMCA. This was the second one so far. The turn out was great, around 40 riders. We took off through downtown and hit River Road. I came up behind the two lead riders. I didn't know who they were, I don't many of the local roadies, so on the long climb, I decided to go around a nd take off. What I didn't know was that these two were very strong riders. Within 2 miles, they had caught and passed me. It was all I could do to keep them in sight. After the turn around, they pulled further away and one other rider passed me. At the end of River Road the lead two had stopped, so I stopped and chatted. Their names were Barry and Brad. Didn't get their last names. They were glad when I had passed, gave them someone to chase. The catch came quick. They are good friends with Puala Dahl and when they rode back down River Road to meet her, I followed. I know now that I have a lot of training to do to keep up on the road. I figure that it can only help the mountainbiking, especially the XXC's and the Shenandoah 100. The new Lemond is great to ride. I'm so glad I bought it. I hope the weather will be nice this Sunday too.

Hike

It was a short but fun hike on the Appalachian Trail yesterday. We started at the Foot Bridge on Rt 130. Crossing the bridge was windy and cold, but once we got in the woods it was warmer. Jess, Tyler, and I walked about 2 miles before eating some food and heading back. We found some very nice places to camp and will probably be heading back once it warms up a little more and spending a night or two. Right now everything still looks pretty barren with leaves on the trees. Too bad you can't mountain bike on the AT.

Saturday 3/21/09

I have not posted anything for quite some time. I'm going to try to start doing more on here, so stay tuned.

Today, Jess, Tyler, and I are going to do an "out and back" hike on the Appalachian Trail. I packed up our three bags last night with water, pretzels, poptarts, and Jess will add peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches this morning. Should be lots of fun. I wish I had the ability to take off from work and hike for a week or more on the trail.