The Second Half

There was a break in the weather this morning...

As in, it actually stopped raining for more than 6 hours. So, rather than get up early and go to work, I got up early and hopped on my bike. Yeah - imagine that. So I go explore a new set of trails I had heard about, but had never ridden, It was one of those days where I wasn't amped up to ride as hard as I could - so taking it a little slower on some new terrain was just the ticket. Riding some new singletrack that paralleled Snowbowl road, I came across a group of maybe 8-10 deer. They were following the same trail I was on, and always stayed about 50-100 feet in front of me looking back every 15 to 20 seconds to make sure I wasn't getting too close. Their movement was as effortless as an American with a shopping cart and less than 10 minutes in a Wal-Mart, cutting and dashing at will. Eventually, they let me pass by heading up the hillside and I was kinda sad to see them go. It was kind of foggy like that opening scene in Gladiator - with a bunch of deforested sections where they were thinning the forest for new growth. The deer only added to the surreal feeling of being on a movie set.

I was then dumped back onto my regular trail network, and hit the Sunset climb with eveything I had - and then continued up up up up to the sky. Coming down featured two non-catastrophic wrecks due to being over confident on some rough stuff. Cocky? Yeah. I learned from that with the rash on my legs, and the dent on the back of my helmet.

The Cannondale is riding tight - just an all around great bike. I'm way more careful on it than when I ride the singlespeed because its just a lot more fragile. Pivot points, proprietary suspension, carbon/aluminum/plastic frame mix, and....well....after the upgrade it wasn't cheap. 10 days until pain to the 9th degree at the MTB 100 in Durango. I can't say I'm not a LOT nervous about it.

So here I am at work, paying the price for that 3+ hour stomp this morning. I'll have to hang around until 8pm to get my sh*t done. 6:30 if I decide to bail and make up the difference tomorrow. 5:30 if I say F*ck it and just go home. I think I might opt for door #3.